Greening the cocoa industry

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Jodie

Greening the Cocoa Industry was the name of the webinar hosted by Rainforest Alliance in relation to Valentine’s day, the one day of the year when chocolates are the main gift of choice.

The cocoa industry is huge and continues to grow, new varieties of chocolates are marketed everyday along with old faithfuls getting a make over and making you fall in love with them all over again.

The greatest producer of cocoa is West Africa which accounts for 70% of the world’s production which provides the livelihoods for 5 million farmers, that’s a lot of households. These farmers experience an array of problems from deforestation and child trafficking, to safety and fertilizer pressures.

In an effort to enhance sustainable cocoa production Rainforest Alliance is now working with 60,000 farmers and supporting 100,000 tons of certified sustainable cocoa per year.

The social benefits are highly tied to the environmental benefits.

A study in Cote d’Ivoire (2010) concluded that on the groups surveyed, Rainforest Alliance Certified farms displayed a 20 percent higher rate of regular school attendance for children than the controls. 32 percent more of the treatment group was found to have one or more pieces of protective equipment than their control group farms, and 4 percent less farms than their control group suffered injuries.

These are very real impacts on the farmer’s families and quality of life.

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