Accra, Dec. 14, GNA – The 2020 Cocoa Barometer is calling for a change in the cocoa value-chain system to end poverty among cocoa farmers, their families, and entire communities and resolve the problems of deforestation.
A statement from the Cocoa Barometer 2020, copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra on Monday said poverty remained the daily reality for virtually all West African cocoa farmer families, child labour remained rife, while old-grown forests continued to be cleared to make way for cocoa production.
It said the 2020 Cocoa Barometer had published a report to outline the necessary steps governments and industry should take, together with farmers and civil society organisations, to end deforestation and human rights abuses in cocoa supply chains.
Cocoa Barometer co-author Antonie C. Fountain of the VOICE Network was quoted as saying: “After two decades of voluntary initiatives that do not tackle the root causes, it is time for systemic change in the sector.
“All the ingredients are there to make it work, but it is now time to move forward, and put in place ambitious, holistic, and mandatory change so that we can finally tackle the poverty, child labour and deforestation in cocoa.”
It also called for effective partnerships between producer and consumer countries to facilitate and finance system change, to ensure the right policies were in place.
The report also called for a delivery at a fair price for farmers, adding that cocoa and chocolate companies ought to find ways to redistribute value along the supply chain to enable farmers to guarantee a living income.
The statement identified problems in the cocoa sector, as failure of actors to do what was expected of them, as efforts had only been voluntary, and not mandatory.
According to the statement, Mr Isaac Gyamfi, Managing Director for Solidaridad in West Africa, said: “We are at the crossroads. Do we continue skirting around the issue of farmers’ wellbeing, or will all stakeholders together radically redesign value distribution and decision making in the cocoa sector? Let’s make space at the table and assure a living income, for both farmers and workers”.
GNA