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Encouraging Sustainable, Responsible Cocoa Growing

WCF Supporter Spotlight

The Toms Group of Denmark, the parent company of Toms Confectionery Group, believes that change and new ideas are necessary for improvement. Toms also continually strives to strengthen its bonds with suppliers. It is this commitment to change and the company's focus on the supply chain which led Toms to become a supporter of the World Cocoa Foundation. "Without cocoa farmers there would be no chocolate. Toms understands that helping cocoa farm families increase their incomes from cocoa will help to ensure a high quality supply of this essential ingredient," says Toms CEO Per Haerkjaer. "We are proud to be part of a worldwide organization working to establish responsible sustainable cocoa farming everywhere cocoa is grown."

Outreach

  • Traffic on the World Cocoa Foundation's website www.worldcocoafoundation.org continues to increase. In December alone, there were over 10,000 worldwide visitors from 20 countries including Singapore, Brazil and Mexico. Those 10,000 visitors produced over 121,000 hits with each visitor staying on the site an average of 11 minutes. Primary areas of interest for the visitors included The Cocoa Tree and information on how cocoa is grown.
  • The World Cocoa Foundation provided assistance to the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon for its upcoming Chocolate! exhibit. The Foundation assisted with text development, photos, videos and other advice. The exhibit is expected to open in Spring 2004.
  • National Geographic magazine's April issue features a "chocolate map" of the world, showing largest cocoa producers and biggest chocolate consuming countries. The short article accompanying the map describes the history of chocolate. National Geographic relied heavily on the World Cocoa Foundation for background information.
  • Bread for the World, an organization whose projects center on poverty and hunger alleviation in West Africa, will feature a short article on the mission and purpose of the World Cocoa Foundation in its 2004 annual report. Copies of the annual report will be distributed to policy-makers and individuals interested in poverty reduction.

Research

WCF consultant Bob Lumsden traveled to Brazil in December to review progress on witches broom research. Two hundred witches broom resistant clones have been identified over a 10-year period. Several of these clones are being further tested for disease resistance on farms in Bahia, Brazil. For further WCF sponsored Research Updates, click here.

West Africa

  • The FDPCC, an Ivorian fund for the promotion and development of cocoa and coffee activities in Cote d'Ivoire, is providing a grant to the Sustainable Cocoa Program's cooperative training programs. The organization will contribute to the training programs over the next 12 months.
  • WCF consultant BK Matlick attended a 9-day Workshop for Master Trainers and Supervisors sponsored by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture's regional office in Cameroon. The Workshop highlighted accomplishments in 2003 and plans for 2004. The Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon all reported that the demand for farmer training workshops exceeds current program capacity. Given the opportunity, Matlick reports that each program could expand from 1,000 farmers trained per year to 10,000 farmers per country.
  • Social awareness training acceptance and interest by farmers was high, especially for the Ivory Coast and Cameroon where community leaders have expanded the program beyond STCP. All four countries feel that the Farmer Field Schools present an excellent opportunity to increase awareness on child labor issues as well as HIV/AIDS prevention.
  • An article on WCF was featured in the current issue of Africa Journal, a monthly publication of the Corporate Council on Africa. The main focus of the Corporate Council is to enhance trade and investment ties between the United States and Africa.

Asia

In December the SUCCESS Alliance conducted its second round of Practical Farmer Training (PFT) in side grafting in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nearly 4000 farmers benefited from the 2nd of four organized training sessions in 130 locations. The PFT training trains farmers to recognize trees with high productivity and cocoa pod borer resistance for grafting onto less productive trees. USAID Washington considers the SUCCESS Alliance a model for bringing together NGOS, industry and donor resources to address problems in the cocoa sector.

Latin America

WCF held a coordinated teleconference in January 2004 with cocoa project leaders in Ecuador. The newest cocoa project, a 3-year monetization grant funded by USDA, will train over 18,000 farmers on improved agronomic practices. Two WCF trips are planned to the region during the 1st Quarter of 2004 for technical oversight and coordination.