KEY INTERVIEW: A Thriving Cocoa Sector for Generations to Come
23 Jun 2014 --- At this year’s World Cocoa Congress, Cargill released its first global progress report on its activities to support cocoa farmers and the development of a sustainable global cocoa supply chain. Taco Terheijden, the company’s sustainability manager for cocoa & chocolate, speaks to Food Ingredients First to explain what it’s all about.
The world is facing a shortage of cocoa and therefore chocolate, and yet consumers are demanding more and more of the stuff. It’s a problem Cargill, and others in the industry, have been working to tackle for some time.
Taco Terheijden, the company’s sustainability manager for cocoa & chocolate, explains that Cargill’s latest report, which is called ‘A thriving cocoa sector for generations to come’, highlights the progress the company has made over the past decade.
“The cocoa sector is challenging and there are complex issues and a lot of inter-linkages between certain elements so we needed to take a holistic approach as it was the only way,” he says. “It is crucial that we enable the farmers to have the tools to lead to higher incomes in the long-run,” he explains. “They need community and infrastructure and they need well-functioning cocoa supply chains.”
The current situation:
At present, cocoa farmers are increasingly unable to make a sustainable living from this industry, and this means it is not an appealing career for younger generations. Farmers, young and old, have therefore been seeking their fortunes elsewhere.
“In some parts of the world, farmers have been able to move to other cash crops such as rubber and palm oil. We want them to have a good income because they are in cocoa,” says Terheijden.
“Malaysia is a good example of what happens if no-one intervenes – they are moving massively into palm oil. Malaysia was one of the promising countries 20 years ago but today it is clearly not. It didn’t live up to expectations in terms of production.”
But there are emerging regions for cocoa production, he says. “Vietnam wasn’t a cocoa producing country at all before and today it is a very small producer of cocoa, but Cargill is working with farmers there. Coffee has been successful and often that means it is the right climate and the right environment for cocoa.”
There has also been a revived interest in Brazil, he says. But while this is encouraging, he points out that “we also have to be very realistic and the majority of cocoa needs to come from countries which already produce a lot today, which is why we are focusing on West Africa.”
Meanwhile, a pattern has been occurring in cocoa. Farmers move into new land with better cocoa trees once theirs are old and tired.
“As a planet we can’t afford to do this,” he explains. “We need to produce more with the same land, not less. Studies show we have to produce more to meet demand (we have to produce more with less land). In addition, cocoa requires a certain humidity and satellite maps show that the areas of potential where cocoa can grow is going to be reduced.”
The good news is that the demand is there, so helping farmers now should make this a more desirable career in the long-term.
The biggest markets for cocoa consumption are Western Europe and the US and these are still growing markets.
“But there is a greater growth in emerging markets, which is positive,” he says. “The real acceleration of demand comes from emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America. It is GDP linked. There is an increase in middle-income people, which is linked to chocolate consumption and the purchase of luxury goods.”
What is Cargill doing?
In order to align its efforts the company also launched the Cargill Cocoa Promise in 2012, which reinforces its global commitment to improving the livelihoods of farmers, their families and their communities, and to securing a long-term, sustainable supply of cocoa.
“Cocoa does take a couple of years before you can start using it so we need to get this knowledge across to famers to replenish their stocks and reinvest, to get appropriate average of age of trees,” Terheijden explains. “Access to new planting material is also important.”
Some achievements highlighted in the report include the fact that more than 115,000 farmers have been trained in good agricultural practices in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam. In addition, 77,000 farmers have been certified through farmer cooperatives and organizations. And a whopping 25.3m seedlings have been distributed in order to support growth in cocoa production.
Is it working?
“Ivory Coast is the first area we have been working in. We do see some good examples which makes us believe in sector change and that a big transformation will take place,” he says.
“Farmers do tell us that they are more willing and excited about growing cocoa. They also tell us they have higher productivity - so there are pockets of progress. We can scale this up when we know we are doing the right thing.”
The Cocoa Promise addresses key challenges in the sector, including the need to increase yields and incomes for famers and improving access to training, education and healthcare, as well as regenerating farmland.
“Farmers tend to focus on one cash crop but we encourage them to also look at food crops so that they can sustain their families more easily.”
What’s next?
“We are convinced what we are doing has a positive impact but we need to be open to failures as well because it affects people’s lives,” he explains. “The plan is to get a transparent summary of achievements to date to assess the global impact.
“We are pleased with progress so far and we are aware of the challenges ahead. If we all play a role in supply chain there is a very bright future for the cocoa industry.”
