GHANA – Cargill Ghana Limited, has disbursed GHS6 million (US$1.027m) to over 19,000 cocoa farmers for this year’s cocoa season through its Licensed Buying Company (LBC) known as Cargill Kokoo Sourcing Limited (CSKL).

According to Cargill, this is a 12% increase on the 2018/2019 cocoa season payment, which indicated the company’s progressing efforts at delivering increased value to the famers within its sourcing network.

The premium payment is part of strategies to incentivize farmers to adopt sustainable production practices and support their livelihoods in line with the Cargill Cocoa Promise.

Mr Samuel Apana, Sustainability Country Lead, Cargill Ghana Limited said, “We are in our fifth year of sustainable cocoa sourcing under our unique sourcing approach, which combines new high-tech purchasing with the LBC model of direct sourcing and collaboration with farmers and farmer groups and I am happy to note that it is working well.”

The buying process is e-enabled which seeks to enable Cargill to pay farmers directly via electronic transfer.

This provides a high level of transparency, traceability and security for farmers, the LBC and other stakeholders.

Leveraging on technology, 90% of lead farmers have also been coached using mobile devices.

“We are in our fifth year of sustainable cocoa sourcing under our unique sourcing approach, which combines new high-tech purchasing with the LBC model of direct sourcing and collaboration with farmers and farmer groups and I am happy to note that it is working well.”

Mr Samuel Apana – Sustainability Country Lead, Cargill Ghana Limited

Mr. Martin Anane, Cocoa Sourcing Director CKSL, highlighted that, a total of 30,000 cocoa farmers in 10 districts benefited from the Cargill Cocoa Promise sustainability interventions in Ghana.

Touching on the payment made to farmers this year, Aedo van der Weij, Managing Director (MD) of Cargill Ghana said, “The impact of the Cargill Kokoo Sourcing model on the lives of farmers and their communities has been significant and this has reflected in the increasing number of farmers joining our network.”

This initiative is geared towards ensuring the cocoa farmers earn better income that will enable them to sustain their farms and livelihoods and the sector in general.

Recently the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has announced that beginning October 1, 2020, a new cocoa producer price of GH¢10,560 (US$1,827) per metric ton, equivalent to GH¢660 (US$114) per bag will be paid for the coming 2020/21 crop year.

This represents a hike of more than 28% over the price obtained in the outgoing crop year of 2019/2020 and is in line with the international arrangement with Côte d’Ivoire and global stakeholders, of awarding the cocoa farmers the full US$400/MT Living Income Differential (LID).

The new premium Living Income was set to address a perceived imbalance between farmers’ incomes and money made by big commodities traders. The move has been supported by chocolate makers and grinders.

To further build transparency and traceability in its cocoa sourcing, Cargill has launched CocoaWise, a digital portal that provides a lens through which food and beverage manufacturers have increased knowledge and shareability into the origin of the products they source from its direct supply chain.

CocoaWise provides customers with fast, easy access to the sustainability data of Cargill’s cocoa supply chain.

With full real-time visibility, the platform enables customers to be more deeply connected to the communities from which they purchase their cocoa and see first-hand the impact of financial investments in key initiatives that meet the needs of the cocoa farming communities on the ground.

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