OMG!Pray it never happens!
Posted on 01/01/2012 7:17:03 AM PST by markomalley
SUHUM – It was one year ago that Ghana’s president John Atta Mills announced the country's first-ever launch of an oil platform. The December 15, 2010 pomp-filled ceremony, in front of television cameras, marked Ghana's arrival among the ranks of oil producers. Experts say that was also a bad day for the country’s cacao producers, as the raw material -- a traditional Ghanaian export -- would no longer get the attention or investment necessary to be sustainable.
The situation was particularly disquieting to Swiss chocolate makers as Ghana is their most important supplier. More than half of the cacao beans transformed into chocolate in Switzerland come from the Western African nation. “Cacao consumption goes up globally by 2% to 3% annually, and that rhythm has been sustained even during crisis periods,” says Kamillo Kitzmantel, General Manager of Lindt & Sprüngli Suisse. “Supply can’t meet demand, as new suppliers like Vietnam or the Philippines have yet to show that they can deliver the required quality levels.”
The Ghana Cocoa Board, a state-run organization that promotes cacao bean production, says that local trees have become too old, threatening to make harvests even more meager. If the 2011 harvest set a record it was only because of exceptionally favorable weather. And beyond the neglect of tree renewal initiatives, there is also a looming shortage of farmers. The average age of cacao farmers is around 55 years old – in a country where life expectancy is 58.
The face of such threats to its top supplier, Switzerland has stepped in with a private pilot project that is receiving Swiss government support. “We show farmers how they can earn money by growing cacao,” Yayra Glover explains. “The first step is to get the farmers to feel proud of their production. In Switzerland, there are buyers ready to pay above market price if cacao is produced without child labor or the use of chemical products.”
The Ghanaian entrepreneur lived in Switzerland for more than 20 years, then decided to return to Ghana to take up sustainable cacao farming. He is now located in Suhum, in the eastern part of the country, working with 2,500 small farmers who grow cacao organically.
Distribution chains and chocolate
Glover’s initiative was possible thanks to his close partnership with Pakka, a Zurich-based company specialized in the development of fair trade for organic produce from southern countries. Pakka also sells products like nuts, dried fruit – and cacao.
“Producers in southern countries can’t get into the European market on their own,” says Balz Strasser, Pakka’s general manager. “We support them by building the necessary networks and distribution chains.” Part of the organic cacao from Ghana is thus delivered to Max Felchlin AG, a company in the canton (district) of Schwyz that provides chocolate makers and restaurants with semi-finished chocolate products.
A little more than four years on, the project has cost 1.3 million Swiss francs ($1.38 million). Nearly half (47%) came from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The private sector (notably Pakka and Max Felchlin AG) and non-governmental organizations in Ghana came up with the rest.
The example of Yayra Glover may inspire others. The Economic Cooperation and Development division of SECO foresees geographic expansion into the Volta region in the southeast. This would also be a way of stemming rural exodus. Several of Glover’s young employees come from Accra, where they graduated from university. Today, they are dedicated to farming cacao. “I’ve bought some land of my own, and have put in some baby plants,” says Samuel Quaque, a manager at Glover’s company. “I imagine my future on a plantation, not in a city.”
If women don’t get their chocolate all hell is going to break loose!
I don’t understand why we haven’t hunted down the person or people responsible for this shortage. We know it was man-made.
OMG!Pray it never happens!
Whoa! This goes into the “Hugh and Series” column! Chocolate is one of the food groups. Where is Newt, Santorum, Bachmann, Paul, Mittens, Huntsman, and Perry on this vital US national security issue?
HUH? This could decide the future of the world!
< /sarc >
I’m guessing child labor laws have a lot to do with it. People feel good when they think they’re helping save the children but very often it has far worse complications down the road (a chocolate shortage is the least of them)
Slightly off topic but indicative of the trend......
I read a blurb in Forbes describing a French wine as being organic and made from grapes produced in horse plowed vineyards
Switzerland has stepped in with a private pilot project that is receiving Swiss government support.Oh, the 'stipulations'.“We show farmers how they can earn money by growing cacao,” Yayra Glover explains.
“The first step is to get the farmers to feel proud of their production. In Switzerland, there are buyers ready to pay above market price if cacao is produced without child labor or the use of chemical products.”
Does this mean the 'child' labor of the farmer's kids is outlawed too? If so ... SENSELESS ... how else to inculcate farming into the yutes there ...
“I read a blurb in Forbes describing a French wine as being organic and made from grapes produced in horse plowed vineyards”
Is that to keep the weeds down in the rows between grapevine ‘fences’ (our grapevines used to grow up on and over 4 or five wires strung between two solid metal posts)?
They say cacao won’t grow more than 10° from the equator.
I’ve seen a cacao tree with ripe pods as far north as Fullerton, CA.
Unfortunately on that occasion I was helping an in-law move and wasn’t able to stop and get samples.
The next time I was in the area, the tree was gone and a stump grinder had been taken to the ground. dammit.
Supply and demand; I’m wondering if this can’t be grown somewhere in Latin America?
Yes, I’ve seen that phenomena before as well...the monthly chocolate craving...
The cocoa is harvested by slaves. Remember that. Many of the Slaves are from the Sudanese Dinka tribe—Once they rocked the British Empire as the fierce “Fuzzie Wuzzzies” who broke the British Square. Now they are chained slaves—to harvest the cocoa. the slaves should be freed—Things have gotten worse after so called independence.
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