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Cocoa: facts worth knowing

Learn more about the complex world of cocoa and about cocoa commitment.

Where does cocoa grow?

Due to climatic conditions, cocoa can only be grown in a “chocolate belt” of tropical countries along the equator. About two-thirds of the world’s cocoa harvest comes from the West African countries Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast.

How is cocoa cultivated?

Cocoa is a demanding agricultural product to farm. Cocoa trees don’t bear fruit until they are five to seven years old, and depending on the farming situation, the yield declines after around 17 years. For this reason, old cocoa trees are continuously felled—the wood is mainly used as firewood—and new trees are planted in their place. Good farms are complex ecosystems with many plant and animal species; for example, cocoa trees need larger neighboring trees like umbrella thorn acacias for shade and as natural fertilizer producers, as well as insects for pollination. The simultaneous cultivation of crops such as lemons, avocados, ginger, yams, or cassava is also beneficial for nature and the farms. This farming method is called agroforestry. It is the sustainable alternative to monoculture farming.

From 600 to 1,100 cocoa trees can grow on one hectare of land. Farms are typically between one and four hectares in size. Because the trees bear buds, blossoms, and fruit all at the same time, farmers have to keep a constant eye on them. With a few thousand trees, this is a lot of work.

How important is cocoa farming?

Cocoa is essential to countries in West Africa, responsible for a large part of their foreign exchange revenue. For example, cocoa still accounts for more than one-third of Ghana’s total export revenue, and 40 percent in the case of Côte d’Ivoire. Because of their dependence on this single commodity, the economies of these countries are very sensitive to fluctuations in cocoa harvests and the demand for cocoa on the world market.

How is cocoa harvested?

The 20 to 40 cocoa pods per tree ripen right on the three- to eight-meter-high trunk. When the pods change color, from yellow to red and then purple, it means they are ripe. They are then removed from the trunk with a machete—which can be dangerous—a picking knife, or garden shears. Because the pods on a single tree ripen at different times, there is a main and a secondary harvest season. In West Africa, the main harvest season is from October to March, and the secondary harvest takes place from May to August.

What happens after the cocoa is harvested?

The cocoa fruit continues to ripen on the ground for a few days. The pods are then broken in two to extract the 25 to 50 cocoa beans along with the white fruit pulp. The cocoa beans and the pulp are put in fermentation containers, which are often large wooden boxes. In the traditional processing method, this mass is covered with banana leaves. The cocoa beans and pulp then ferment for five to seven days, during which the pulp separates from the beans and decomposes. The cocoa beans now have a light crimson color, and the first cocoa flavor begins to develop. The flavor continues to develop during the subsequent careful drying phase.

As with coffee, the full flavor of the cocoa is only obtained after roasting.

Which cocoa varieties are particularly important?

The most important cocoa plant species are Forastero, Criollo, and the Forastero-Criollo cross, Trinitario. About 80 percent of the world’s cocoa crop comes from Forastero plants. These plants are high-yielding and relatively resistant to disease and pests. Compared to the Forastero, the Criollo plant has a lower yield and is more labor-intensive and more susceptible to disease. However, the cocoa obtained from it is considered to be of very high quality and especially aromatic. The Trinitario plant is found especially in South and Central America.

What is a cocoa seal?

A cocoa seal is part of a sustainability program or certification program for cocoa. A cocoa seal on the packaging identifies products in which part or all of the cocoa used is certified. Depending on the system, either the cocoa physically contained in the product is traceable back to the farm, or the amount of certified cocoa required by the cocoa seal is allocated by means of certificates. Cocoa commitment takes a middle path: The journey of the raw cocoa is completely traceable, from the farms to the KRÜGER GROUP’s own cocoa-processing factory in Germany. In the production of semifinished cocoa products such as cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa mass, raw cocoa from various sources is mixed.

Important and well-known certification programs for cocoa include, for example, the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. Cocoa commitment cocoa is always certified in accordance with either the Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade, but is also subject to cocoa commitment’s own additional program criteria. As a seal exclusively for cocoa, cocoa commitment is specifically dedicated and fully attuned to the challenges of cocoa farming, with a focus on West African growing countries. With experts on-site, additional locally coordinated measures can be implemented even on short notice.

Products that bear the cocoa commitment seal are manufactured in part with cocoa grown from the cocoa commitment sustainability program. The cocoa from the program is certified by the Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade, and additionally fulfills the sustainability measures of cocoa commitment.

What does sustainable cocoa farming mean?

Sustainable cocoa farming means that the cocoa is cultivated in a manner that is ecologically sound and doesn’t exploit the growers. Sustainability programs such as the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade exist to ensure this. Their basic programs differ in criteria such as their requirements, monitoring, and auditing instruments, or in their purchasing-price agreements.
Cocoa commitment builds on these programs in order to promote and monitor sustainable cocoa farming and increase demand for sustainable cocoa through the development of further criteria and measures.

What is Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)?

Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) is the term used to describe the regional standards in agriculture, based on current knowledge of ecology and economics, that responsible farmers apply. For cocoa, this means using quality plants, selecting and planting the appropriate shade plants, maintaining and improving soil fertility, controlling weeds and pests in an environmentally friendly manner, and restoring cultivated land to a good condition after the harvest. The farmers are taught about these topics. This includes the transfer of knowledge on cultivation methods in order to be prepared for the effects of climate change.

Are there rainforest protection projects that promote sustainable cocoa farming?

A rainforest protection project primarily promotes the protection of remaining rainforests. However, this topic involves much more, such as the question: How can lands that have lost their rainforests and primeval forests through clear-cutting be restored? A good sustainability program for cocoa farming is therefore complex and generally includes rainforest protection: it supports farmers in achieving success within their existing growing areas, thereby protecting the rainforest. As part of cocoa commitment, even existing cocoa cultivation areas are being reforested, that is, converted from monoculture farming to sustainable agroforestry. This makes the farmland richer in nutrients and thus more fertile, which leads to increased biodiversity and farm productivity. Cocoa commitment promotes the reforestation of abandoned farmland as well—areas that hardly anyone is interested in. Cocoa is grown for extended periods on land that was once primeval forest, until the soil is depleted. The land is then abandoned. But instead of a full, healthy forest, all that grows here is scrub, which lacks biodiversity and climate resilience. Cocoa commitment supports reforestation programs for such forgotten areas that are neither used for agriculture nor located in nature reserves.

How are cocoa beans processed?

Many processing steps are necessary in turning cocoa beans into cocoa butter and cocoa powder.

  • The cocoa beans are delivered.
  • They are pre-cleaned to remove foreign material such as small stones.
  • The beans are broken and the resulting cocoa nibs are removed from the shell and then sterilized and alkalized. Alkalizing is necessary for cocoa powder production, as it gives the cocoa powder its typical color and a milder taste.
  • The cocoa nibs are roasted, lending them their characteristic, subtle cocoa aroma.
  • They are then ground into cocoa mass.
  • The cocoa mass is put in tanks for storage.
  • For the final cocoa powder product, a portion of the cocoa butter is separated from the cocoa mass. This produces an oil cake, which is then ground into cocoa powder. Depending on the residual cocoa butter content, the cocoa powder is designated as, for example, lightly or heavily de-oiled.
  • After the grinding process, the cocoa powder is stabilized and packaged.
  • The remaining cocoa butter is filtered and deodorized. It provides the basis for chocolate and other products.

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Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Wild cocoa trees love shady forests and intact ecosystems in which every plant plays an important role: some trees create shade, while others provide valuable fertilizer with their leaves, or their roots loosen the soil. The practice of agroforestry in “multistoried” forests similar to primeval forests, with mutually complementary native plants, has many advantages for cocoa cultivation—including surprisingly high yields. This is because it isn’t only cocoa that is successfully grown in agroforests. Other tree species provide firewood, lumber, and fruit, while vegetables and herbs can be grown using smart crop sequencing. Tree and plant cuttings serve as fertilizer. Farmers can sell these non-cocoa crops for profit or use them for their own purposes.

Because the ecosystem is intact, there are also more pollinating insects, the need for artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides is reduced, and the healthy soil doesn’t erode and can therefore store water. All of this makes the farm as a whole more resilient against climate change. We promote the transition from cocoa monoculture to agroforestry, particularly through training sessions in the cooperatives and the annual planting of around 5,000 trees. Only farms that pledge not to acquire any additional farmland through forest clearing are accepted into the cocoa commitment sustainability program. This is monitored through visits to the farms, the use of GPS data, and other means.

The challenge: a lack of financial understanding

Every small farm, even if it comprises only a few hectares, is a business. In small-farming structures, however, the operators often live from hand to mouth rather than managing the farm using modern methods. When cocoa yields drop, this isn’t attributed to the actual causes and the costs of pesticides and fertilizer aren’t offset against revenue—with the result that cocoa cultivation often is no longer worthwhile.

Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Wild cocoa trees love shady forests and intact ecosystems in which every plant plays an important role: some trees create shade, while others provide valuable fertilizer with their leaves, or their roots loosen the soil. The practice of agroforestry in “multistoried” forests similar to primeval forests, with mutually complementary native plants, has many advantages for cocoa cultivation—including surprisingly high yields.

This is because it isn’t only cocoa that is successfully grown in agroforests. Other tree species provide firewood, lumber, and fruit, while vegetables and herbs can be grown using smart crop sequencing. Tree and plant cuttings serve as fertilizer. Farmers can sell these non-cocoa crops for profit or use them for their own purposes. Because the ecosystem is intact, there are also more pollinating insects, the need for artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides is reduced, and the healthy soil doesn’t erode and can therefore store water. All of this makes the farm as a whole more resilient against climate change. We promote the transition from cocoa monoculture to agroforestry, particularly through training sessions in the cooperatives and the annual planting of around 5,000 trees. Only farms that pledge not to acquire any additional farmland through forest clearing are accepted into the cocoa commitment sustainability program. This is monitored through visits to the farms, the use of GPS data, and other means.

Our approach: equal rights for women in cocoa farming

We promote awareness that men and women are equal and should therefore also receive equal pay and equal access to education. A further aspect of emancipation is income opportunity: given the relevant knowledge, wives of cocoa farmers can save their own money and apply for loans collectively. This is done via Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), groups of 15 to 30 people, mostly women, who work together and pool their savings.

With the help of knowledge, a sense of community, and loans, they can unleash their entrepreneurial potential and implement their own plans, such as starting a vegetable-growing cooperative. Additional income from such initiatives improves the social status of women and the living standard of their families. Moreover, diversification in the crops grown—in Africa, bananas, corn, cassava, papaya, or pineapple, for example—opens up additional sources of income and contributes to improved food security. And additional income enables more children to go to school and at the same time reduces exploitative child labor.

We know that women’s income and education levels have a direct impact on their children’s health and education. Therefore, promoting women’s entrepreneurial skills and creating income-generating opportunities is of central importance to them in supporting their children’s education, improving local development, and making progress toward ending exploitative child labor.

The challenge: the economic dependence of women

Women who work on cocoa farms are often financially disadvantaged, as they are hardly able to earn their own income and additionally bear the main responsibility for domestic work and child-rearing. They are therefore often financially dependent on their husbands. Frequently for women, access to education is also more difficult and opportunities fewer than for men. When women manage farms themselves, they often lack sufficient support. Women’s income and educational status have a direct influence on the health and education of their children and family members.

Our approach: information and monitoring for better child welfare

We identify and reduce those types of child labor which have been categorized as illegal by international as well as national law. The instrument used for this is the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), which is designed to protect children and to monitor and eliminate child labor in the supply chain. In the first step, a risk analysis is undertaken in households and communities. The farmers are interviewed about how they deal with the children who work on their
farms. Individually tailored measures are then developed to remedy the situation. In the villages, child protection officers are appointed and trained to implement the CLMRS on-site. If children are being made to do illegal work, they are pulled out of these activities. This can only succeed if farmers are able to manage without the free child labor. One key to this lies in the imparting of knowledge about the efficient working and cultivation methods of the cocoa commitment sustainability program.

The children freed from illegal child labor should also be given the opportunity to go to school. This may require building schools or implementing programs for higher incomes and savings so that parents can pay for tuition. As a result, children gain the opportunity to receive a good education and to earn their own living later.

 

The problem: exploitative child labor

In the cocoa supply chain, illegal and exploitative child labor remains a widespread problem, one that can be traced back to dire poverty and a lack of knowledge. Many people don’t recognize the boundary between “helping out a bit on the farm after school” and illegal child labor.

Schoolchildren are used above all during the main harvest season as full-time workers, including for dangerous tasks such as handling pesticides, working with machetes, or climbing trees. They often work night shifts, without pay, without protective clothing or equipment, and sometimes in the slavery-like conditions of forced labor on unfamiliar, faraway farms. This prevents the children from going to school—parents often don’t have the money to pay for their schooling anyway—and leads to the disruption of their physical and mental development.

Our approach: participation in the sustainability program

Through the measures of the cocoa commitment sustainability program, participating farmers and cooperatives obtain access to knowledge that enables them to reduce costs on their farms and increase the yields and the quality of the cocoa they produce. The reward is markedly higher revenues, creating the financial capacity for a better standard of living and further investment.

The challenge: low incomes for farmers and cooperatives

Cocoa is grown on large and small farms and marketed through large associations, or cooperatives. Entire villages are dependent on cocoa farming. If farm management skills and the knowledge of modern agricultural practices are underdeveloped, profits may be at risk, as the production costs will then be too high, and yields and quality insufficient.

Our approach: reforestation of fallow land

In the framework of cocoa commitment, abandoned farmland outside of national parks and agricultural areas is reforested in order to restore the native regional flora and fauna to land outside of these conservation areas as well.

Significant deforestation has occurred in the affected regions in the past. In reforesting these areas, trees and plants are chosen that are native to the respective region’s primeval forests and are “climate smart”—that is, robust enough to adapt to climatic changes. For example, 11,000 native trees might be planted in a ten-hectare area and monitored for three years. To ensure that the new forest isn’t cleared again, the communities receive Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), a kind of compensation tied to environmental projects, such as the establishment of plant nurseries in cooperation with women’s associations in the communities, or programs to distribute efficient cooking stoves that burn less firewood.

The challenge: fallow acreage

When a cleared forest area is depleted by monoculture cocoa farming, another section of forest is then cleared for cultivation—sometimes illegally, in nature reserves. The depleted acreage is abandoned. However, the soil isn’t fertile enough to support the regrowth of a healthy, full natural forest, but only scrubby undergrowth lacking in biodiversity.

Our approach: better knowledge about crop protection and fertilization

In the framework of projects and training courses, the cocoa farmers acquire up-to-date knowledge about how environmentally friendly crop protection works and how to optimize fertilization methods. Instead of the expensive use of large amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This benefits ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect against weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch from cocoa pods, which is to be found on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil conditioner.

The challenge: incorrect use of pesticides and fertilizers

Due to insufficient knowledge and a lack of access to ecological pest control and fertilization methods, conventional farming practices often employ large amounts of environmentally damaging and even incorrect pesticides and fertilizers. This approach is expensive and eats into profits. At the same time, it takes a heavy toll on ecosystems and on the health of the people using the pesticides. The financial burdens it imposes make it difficult for farmers to earn a living wage, often leaving illegal deforestation and further monoculture farming as the only way out—which in turn destroys important ecosystems and reduces biodiversity.

Our approach: Climate Smart Cocoa

What can be done in a dry growing region to help the soil better retain water from the rainy season, and to prevent evaporation during droughts? How can soil erosion and the spread of fungal diseases be reduced in regions that experience heavy rainfall? How and when should cocoa trees be pruned given a particularly dry or wet growing season? Which alternative varieties of cocoa plants are best suited to changing climate conditions? What technical aides may be used? How can the carbon footprint of cocoa cultivation be reduced?

Each region and cooperative requires its own Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) strategies, which are taught through projects and in training sessions. The objectives are to improve productivity while simultaneously building resilience in the face of possible climate change scenarios, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The challenge: insufficient adaptation to climate change and weather fluctuations

Particularly wet or dry years endanger cocoa yields and incomes. Farms and cooperatives often lack the knowledge to adapt to weather and climate phenomena over both the short and the long term. The consequences can be immediate or long-term crop failures due to periods of drought or heavy rainfall which threaten farmers’ livelihoods. Some current growing regions may lose their suitability for cocoa cultivation altogether in the coming decades.

Our approach: mapping farmland

Farmers who want to become part of cocoa commitment must guarantee that none of their farming areas are situated in a nature reserve, and must pledge not to engage in further deforestation. This is monitored using polygonal mapping. First, the cooperatives map the farmers’ cultivation areas by means of GPS data. This data is then used in a supply chain mapping tool to confirm that the farms aren’t located in protected areas and that the farmers don’t clear any forests in the future.

Does the farm border a nature reserve? If so, satellite photos show whether the farm boundary is correctly indicated, or whether the mapping has been falsified. Is the crop yield remarkably high for the area cultivated? Then satellite photos and on-site visits are used to determine whether farming is taking place in illegal areas. However, the system isn’t based on control alone: it is also about solution paths for farmers. For farms located near conservation areas, farm management plans are drawn up to prevent farming from encroaching on the forest. Cocoa commitment–certified cocoa thus comes from deforestation-free farms.

The challenge: illegal logging that is hard to detect

The clearing of forested areas for new acreage for cocoa cultivation has been common practice for decades. Although countries try to combat this by designating protected areas, violations are often almost impossible to detect.

Our approach: agroforestry and Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)

Monocultures are avoidable, as the alternatives deliver higher total yields over the long term: diversified agroforestry combined with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). On cocoa farms, this means the use of suitable plant varieties, the proper use of shading from additional trees, the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility by natural means, environmentally friendly weed and pest control, and restorative post-harvest practices. Mixed cultivation with other crops, like bananas, papaya, or cassava, provides additional income and is complemented by sustainably grown trees for lumber.

As a result, it isn’t necessary to create new fields or fell trees in adjacent areas for lumber. The implementation of these practices is achieved through the development and transfer of knowledge in the communities and on the farms, regarding questions such as: How can the stock of cocoa trees continuously be rejuvenated? Which seedlings should be selected? How do cocoa trees have to be pruned? Which crops thrive in particular, and what additional functions do they have—for example, do they provide shade or improve the soil?

The challenge: deforestation in virgin forests and rainforests

The most profitable type of cocoa farming over the short term is a monoculture on freshly cleared primeval forest or rainforest land. This is extremely damaging to the environment: biodiversity is lost, large amounts of fertilizers and chemical pesticides have to be used, and at some point, the soil is depleted, which leads to the clearing of further forested areas. The wood logged on such lands is in high demand, as it can be used as free firewood or sold as valuable high-quality lumber. Monocultures have been the default practice for decades, and any knowledge of better alternatives is often lacking. Another disadvantage of this practice is that it makes the farm reliant on a single source of revenue. A failed harvest means a sharp drop in its income.

Our approach: teaching financial knowledge

By teaching farmers about invoicing, accounting, and the use of growing logbooks, they learn how to run their small business in a more professional manner. In this way, bad investments can be avoided and, at the same time, the positive results of converting to agroforestry can be made visible—not only in the cocoa revenues, but also in the overall income of the farm in the form of vegetable crops and wood, and in the savings achieved on pesticides. This makes visible to the farmers that their income can be significantly increased using their existing farmland.

The challenge: low yield despite overexploitation

Each small farm, even if it only manages a few hectares, is a business. However, people often live hand to mouth here, instead of running their farms with modern management methods. If cocoa revenue decreases, this is not assigned to its actual causes, and the cost of pesticides and fertilizer is not offset by income. This often results in cocoa farming no longer being financially viable.

In the projects and during the training courses, the cocoa farmers acquire up-to-date knowledge about how environmentally friendly pest control works and how to perfect fertilization methods. Instead of the expensive use of large amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This is beneficial to ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect from weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch made from cocoa pods, which are in abundance on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil improver.

amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This is beneficial to ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect from weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch made from cocoa pods, which are in abundance on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil improver.

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