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Organic and fair trade production revitalize cocoa industry in São Tomé and Príncipe Only nine years ago, cocoa producers in São Tomé and Príncipe were suffering because of falling global prices for cocoa. Many of them abandoned their cocoa plantations, while others cut down the trees to clear land for maize or other crops. Thanks to IFAD and its partners, nearly 1,200 of them are now growing organic cocoa for the international organic chocolate industry.
At the turn of the millennium, IFAD asked Kaoka, a French organic chocolate producer, to undertake a quick assessment of the country’s cocoa sector. The assessment concluded that the rich genetic origin of São Tomé cocoa varieties could produce superior aromatic cocoa beans that would fetch higher and more stable prices than common cocoa. The study also found that traditional farming methods could be adapted easily to organic production. By combining organic production and fair trade principles, the cocoa farmers could greatly boost their income.
Communities take charge
At the start, the project encouraged smallholder cocoa producers to resume cultivating their trees, and encouraged communities to organize associations to manage the collection and drying of the cocoa beans. The process involved construction by PAPAFPA of infrastructure in each community to enable producers to collect, weigh, ferment and dry the beans for export. Local NGOs and Kaoka provided technical advice and assistance regarding organic cocoa regulations and production techniques. They helped conduct research, control quality and export the beans, and they provided planting materials. The project assisted representatives of community associations in forming the Cooperative for Export and Market of Organic Cocoa (CECAB) to coordinate commercial activity. CECAB signed a five-year contract with Kaoka in 2005 for the supply of organic cocoa. Addressing needs and challenges An international certification body oversaw organic certification. But the transition was by no means easy for the producers. Eventually a system was developed, and the associations paid a supplement to producers during the probation period to keep them on track. Once it has been certified that organic criteria and fair trade principles are respected, the cocoa can be labelled ‘organic fair trade’ cocoa, and Kaoka can assure payment of both an organic and a fair trade premium above the market price. Consequently, the price that producers who have turned organic receive for dry cocoa is about double the price for fresh cocoa that they would receive from local buyers. PAPAFPA is among the few development projects currently engaging with some of these communities, including those on the relatively remote island of Príncipe where the programme began to expand its activities in 2007. PAPAFPA provides producers with a forum where they can make their needs known. Their collective needs can then be communicated to the Fundo de Infraestruturas Comunitárias, (FIC), the community infrastructure arm of the programme, which has a mandate to identify and prioritize economic, social and cultural needs and fund interventions, including labour-saving and environmentally friendly technologies as well as those using alternative, renewable sources of energy. Current constraints include decreasing yields because of the age of the trees, and loss of trees to drought. New trees, grown from seed, take from three to six years to become productive. Once demands for irrigation infrastructure and for shops, health facilities and credit have been prioritized with FIC, they can be either addressed directly or channelled through to service providers. Higher incomes, better lives
Many producers have invested in home improvements and items such as bicycles, generators, radios, refrigerators and television sets. One particularly successful producer used the profit from organic cocoa to set up a small roadside shop that his wife runs, generating even greater profit. Another positive aspect of the programme is that in CECAB producers now have a buyer for all of their production. Previously they were at the mercy of national buyers, who were not always interested in buying fresh beans and who could fix the price among themselves. Producers also appreciate the two-payment system through which they receive an advance on fresh beans from the local association and receive the balance on sale of the product to CECAB. With the help of Kaoka, CECAB has also introduced a small health scheme. The scheme gives smallholder families access to medicines that are sometimes expensive and scarce, particularly in more remote communities. It also serves to further consolidate producers’ trustful commercial relationship with CECAB as the exclusive buyer of their produce. “The PAPAFPA programme clearly demonstrates the vast potential of public-private partnership for rural economic development and poverty reduction,” says Mohamed Béavogui, Director of IFAD’s Western and Central Africa Division. “With a project horizon of 2015, the system of organic fair trade cocoa production, linked in with premium-paying commercial buyers, will become self-sustaining,” says Norman Messer, IFAD Country Programme Manager for São Tomé and Príncipe. Source: IFAD |
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As a result of the international cocoa price crash of 1998, producers lost faith in cocoa as a source of income. Many abandoned their plantations, and others cut down the trees to clear the land for food crops such as maize. A national politician even announced “the end of cocoa in São Tomé and Príncipe”. 
Smallholder families that participated in the programme saw their yearly income increase from a level of 25 per cent below the poverty line to 8 per cent above it, on average.
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