The chocolate economies

The chocolate in your kitchen cabinet almost certainly began as a bean growing under the shade of trees in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produce more than half of the world’s cocoa and over 20 million people get their livelihoods from cocoa in West Africa. Some of them are farmers, growing cocoa using agroforestry methods, but many work off-farm with transporting the bean, buying and selling and making it into products. So, when drought impact the harvest, consequences ripple far beyond the farm. 

Mark Senanu Kudzordzi is a PhD student at SLU looking into how drought affects the chain of people whose work begins where farming ends. 

— These people are rarely counted in forest economies, yet they move beans, add value, and connect rural producers to markets. When drought disrupts cocoa yields, ripples are felt through this chain of people. Making their contributions visible is essential for forest-dependent communities to build economic resilience.

Large part of West Africa economies

Together, these actors form an agroforestry-based economy, and their livelihoods depend on cocoa growing. This project focus on three countries; Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia. Liberia is a smaller player, but cocoa still accounts for a fifth of the value of all its agricultural exports. The three countries organise their cocoa sectors very differently, from being state controlled to free markets. 

— Looking at specifically these three countries gives us a window into how institutions handle the way climate shocks travel along value chains.

Strengthening economic infrastructure helps individuals cope

Early findings in the VR funded research project indicates that whilst community ties and purpose are important, having finance access and institutional support appear to matter more for the well-being of those affected of climate change. 

— This suggests strengthening economic infrastructure around forest-based value chains may be as vital as helping individuals cope. 

This information stems from a survey amongst 1 200 people working off farm. The next step for this ongoing project is to return to the field and interview people to understand the stories behind the numbers. 

— The goal is to identify interventions that are not only effective but also socially acceptable to the people they are meant to help, particularly women and other vulnerable groups in the cocoa economy.