Cocoa farmer income: The household income of cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and strategies for improvement
Côte d’Ivoire, located in Western Africa, is home to approximately 28 million people and over the past 5 years has seen one of the world’s highest growth rates in terms of GDP. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans. The Ivorian economy is largely dependent on the agricultural sector and about two-thirds of the population is engaged in this area. However, this dependency causes the Ivorian economy to be highly sensitive to changes in the international prices of these products. To counter this dependency, policy measures have prioritised a shift to higher value adding activities such as the processing of cocoa, cashews and other commodities.
One of Fairtrade’s most prominent products is cocoa. Fairtrade is pushing the sector to address the many challenges that endanger the long-term sustainability of cocoa and the people behind it. Fairtrade certifies 272 producer organisations in Côte d’Ivoire, with 293,237 farmer members including 28,031 female producers. A central element of Fairtrade International’s strategic vision 2021-2025 is the ambition to see small-scale farmers earning a living income. This study touches upon different initiatives and investigates the progress that Fairtrade farmers have booked over the last years.
The first goal of this study is to assess the situation of these cocoa farmers in 2020, in terms of individual farmer household incomes and the income distribution of cocoa farmers in 2020 as compared to 2018.
The second goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Fairtrade Minimum Price (FMP) mechanism, a safety net for producers, which came into effect in the 2019/2020 harvest period.
Area of focus: Cocoa
Organisation/institution: Fairtrade International