Tony’s Chocolonely renews calls to join its Open Chain amid Ivory Coast price rises
Reis Ghana, van 23 tot 27 januari 2017
Dutch-founded ethical chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely has made a renewed call to the confectionery sector to join its Open Chain system, as Ivory Coast raises its cocoa prices paid to farmers by 22%, writes Neill Barston.
The West African nation remains the world’s largest crop supplier serving the chocolate sector, yet a sustained period of pressure on the region has negatively impacted on yields, with prices having topped $12,000 a tonne in January, though farmers have seen little of those increases.
With Futures markets in London and New York still trading at over $8,000, Ivory Coast’s Coffee-Cocoa Council confirmed that the latest mid crop would raise pay to agricultural workers to around $2,600 per tonne, from a previous level of under $2000.
As Confectionery Production has previously reported, while such figures have been generally welcomed, the figure that farmers are now earning stands at less than a third of what is commanded on commodities markets.
Furthermore, as both Ivory Coast and Ghana-based market observers have noted, comparatively prices paid for cocoa in the two nations have resulted in persistent problems with cocoa smuggling to neighbouring nations including Cameroon, where higher prices are fetched.
There remains further pressure on cocoa farming territory in the region due to illegal gold mining operations that have taken over some areas of traditional agricultural land-use.
Tony’s proposal
In response to this, Tony’s has asserted that an individual rise in itself will not address the underlying considerable challenges facing the cocoa sector, with farmers locked into an underlying cycle of poverty.
Posting on the situation, the company encouraged other businesses to support its Open Chain system, which is built on a premise of encouraging long-term contracts with farming co-operatives in Ivory Coast, with a total of 19 industry enterprises having formed part of its ethically-focused supplier collaboration.
Speaking on Linkedin, Tony’s stated: “While Tony’s celebrates all price increases for farmers, the bitter truth is that higher prices don’t mean better livelihoods.
“This season’s yield is the lowest it’s been in 10 years – all due to climate shocks, crop diseases and decades of underpaying cocoa farmers. So with far less cocoa to sell (even at a higher price), millions of farmers are still stuck in poverty.
“We and our 19 Mission Allies source cocoa responsibly, via our Tony’s Open Chain initiative. This means fully traceable cocoa, higher long-term prices and investing in climate-smart cocoa practices. And the proof is in the beans. The farmers we work with earn more, and produce more cocoa compared to the industry average.”
