Having regard to low incomes paid to cocoa farmers and recognising the need to ensure a better price for farmers and its positive impact on sustainability of the cocoa industry, the President of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr Alassane Ouattara and the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, tasked, in March 2017, their respective cocoa sector management bodies, to set up standing collaborative frameworks to identify lasting solutions to provide decent incomes to cocoa farmers.

The Conseil du Café-Cacao and Ghana Cocoa Board, therefore, joined efforts and worked toward establishing a floor price mechanism based on Living Income Differential for farmers.

In this context, a number of meetings were held in June 2019 in Accra and in July 2019 in Abidjan between CCC and COCOBOD on one side; and the chocolate brand companies and traders on the other, to spell out implementation plans for the aforesaid mechanism.

The LID – based on floor price mechanisms, has been understood by all players of the cocoa value chain as a perfect system for achieving a decent income for all cocoa farmers without exception.

Following from this, some buyers have shown a strong commitment to the new system and its implementation by buying the 2020/2021 crop year which has the 400 Dollars per tonne living income differential.

However, being mindful that the sector’s sustainability also involves environmental and social issues; Le Conseil du Café-Cacao and the Ghana Cocoa Board held a meeting from 10 to 11 September 2019 in Abidjan to specifically address these issues with industrialists and chocolate makers.

It is worth noting that while the LID focuses on the livelihoods of all cocoa farmers without exception, the sustainability programmes being implemented by the brands only affect a selected few farmers It has been observed that the brands are focusing more on their sustainability programmes at the expense of the LID, which rather has more direct positive impact on all cocoa farmers.

The Joint Technical Committee of the two countries is, therefore, re-examining all sustainability and certification programmes for the 2019/20 season. A firm decision on the continuation or discontinuation of ALL sustainability and certification programmes will be communicated to stakeholders by the leaderships of Le Conseil du Café-Cacao and Ghana Cocoa Board at the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership meeting in Berlin.