The world’s biggest chocolate producers are enjoying large profits while failing to pass on the benefits to cocoa farmers, many of whom are suffering falling incomes and worsening poverty, according to a report from the charity Oxfam. The report was published ahead of World Fair Trade Day on May 13. The analysis focuses on Ghana, the world’s second-largest producer of cocoa. The charity says farmer’s incomes in the country have fallen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The authors add that up to “90 percent of Ghanaian cocoa farmers do not earn a living income, meaning they cannot afford enough food or other basics such as clothing, housing and medical care. Many of the 800,000 farmers in the country survive on just $2 a day.” Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s two biggest cocoa producers – signed a deal in 2021 to try to get a bigger share of the chocolate industry’s profit. The two governments set a minimum market price or living income differential for cocoa and also insist on a premium payment – an extra sum of money paid directly to farmers per ton of cocoa. But Oxfam says the payments have failed to meaningfully increase farmers’ incomes.
SOURCE: VOA