GHANA – Mondelez International, world’s leading chocolate company, through its Cocoa Life Sustainability Programme plans to increase its 40% cocoa sourcing from Ghana to 100% by 2025, reports Ghanaian Times.
The head of Cocoa Life Program in Ghana, Yaa Peprah Amekudzi said, “Mondelez International commits to secure 100 per cent cocoa volume for all chocolate brands through its Cocoa Sustainable Programme by 2025, we accept the challenge here in Ghana.”
To ensure the farmers produce cocoa of global standards, the chocolate maker commits to support the farmers by strategically enhancing their performance using modern and mechanised farming methods so they could produce in large scale to meet the demand of the global world.
“Cocoa Life has been supporting farmers in the country to ensure they enhance productivity by shifting from manual farming to a modernised or mechanised farming,” she stressed.
In this regard, Cocoa Life presented the first batch of 100 motorised trimmers worth US$1,000 to 50 farming groups to enhance their productivity.
In addition, 29,116 registered farmers in 334 cocoa communities received about 18 million Ghana cedis (US$3.28m) for the 2018/2019 crop year as sustainability premium to implement their development plans.
The premiums have helped farmers to develop their communities by building infrastructure including schools, clinics, accommodation for teachers and nurses, community recreational scholarships, factories and water wells.
“We would monitor and ensure that the money is used for its intended purpose as we need farmers to drive their own development and own every action that they take so that at the end of the day, quality cocoa bean would be produced in Ghana,” she stressed.
Through this,the company claims that cases of child labour have reduced as various amenities especially schools have been built within the farming communities and vehicles provided to convey the children to the schools.
Cocoa Life is a sustainable programme which assists cocoa growing communities to strengthen their capacities by determining and achieving their own long-term goals geared towards driving economic development and prosperity.
According to Mondelez, 43% of its chocolate including Milka, Cadbury Dairy Milk, and Côte d’Or brands already carry the Cocoa Life logo, meaning they are made from cocoa that is sustainably sourced.
Once again, I want congratulate Mondelez Team in Ghana for the wonderful work you have done in implementing the coco life project. In my opinion, that is what our poor cocoa farmers need now. In fact, if you look at the kind of food our cocoa farmers eat, the water they drink, the roads they used and the kind of schools their children attend, you wonder if these are the people producing the crop we are always boosting of, we are really not thinking about their welfare. we are only cheating them.
But, thanks to cocoa life program through CARE international that has established the cooperative system to put farmers together and to assist them. We want to appeal to Mondelez to continue to help more farmers. Continue to motivate your workers and take very good care of the field officers who are always with the farmers on the field. In addition do not replace the cooperative system with any other project, it is really working and farmers are very happy and comfortable with it. special thanks to CARE international, their activities are every where in the communities.