New Partnership to Increase Income for 100,000 Ivorian Cocoa Producers

IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative and the Conseil du Café-Cacao started Cocoaperation, a new partnership to support the transition of cocoa farming towards a viable business activity for as many cocoa farming families as possible in Côte d’Ivoire. 

As the world’s largest cocoa producer, Côte d’Ivoire holds nearly one million smallholder cocoa farmers; a quarter of the Ivorian population is directly or indirectly dependent on cocoa for their livelihood and income. But only around eight percent of cocoa farmers earn a living income. Within Cocoaperation, IDH and the Conseil will mobilize cocoa traders, chocolate manufacturers and financial institutions to cooperate and align their activities. By working together cocoa farmers are enabled to make the transition to more profitable and resilient farming activities.

Cocoaperation is part of the IDH Living Income Roadmap and will link cocoa producers and their cooperatives with financial institutions, cocoa traders and other partners in the cocoa value chain. IDH and the Conseil du Café-Cacao aspire to increase the incomes of at least 100,000 cocoa producers before the end of 2025. They do this by promoting investment in cocoa farms to transform them into more profitable and resilient agricultural businesses. The provision of credit and other financial services should be aligned with the right input supplies, farm advice and access to reliable markets. Cooperatives have an important role to play as service providers to their farmers and where necessary, partners in Cocoaperation will support their development.

The Conseil and IDH will co-chair a Cocoaperation platform of cocoa sector players. Furthermore, the EUR2.5m of IDH co-funding for innovation and scaling will facilitate viable improvements in cocoa farming. In addition, the IDH Farmfit Fund will assist lending organisations in Côte d’Ivoire to reduce risks or costs of credit provision to the cocoa farming sector. “IDH aims to contribute to a living income for smallholder producers,” says Daan Wensing, CEO of IDH. “We intend to facilitate investments from the private sector and strengthen the support for more profitable and resilient cocoa farming systems. This may not lead to a living income for all cocoa farming households in the coming two to three years, but for the targeted group it will be the way forward towards closing the living income gap.”