West Africa’s successful cocoa coup heralds new dawn

Up to 50 million people around the world, including around five million smallholder farmers, depend on cocoa which is essential to their livelihoods. 

Africa is the world’s major cocoa producer with West African nations—Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo—producing an estimated 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa on 1.5 million farms. The majority of the crop comes from small farms of between three to five hectares. 

Producing cocoa is backbreaking for the cocoa farmers yet they do not earn enough from the product that is a global on-demand ingredient. Most farmers are unable to cover their basic needs despite the fact that the worldwide chocolate market is valued at US$103 billion.