New World Cocoa Foundation Supporters
The World Cocoa Foundation welcomed new supporters in August - the Ferrara Pan Candy Company and individual supporters Bill and Janet Barry. Twenty-one companies and 12 individuals are contributing to the Foundation's worldwide sustainable cocoa program.
World Cocoa Foundation Outreach
- The World Cocoa Foundation's Annual Partnerships Meeting will be held October 1 in Washington, DC. The meeting will focus on the Foundation's regional programs in West Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia in addition to the cocoa research program.
- Kip Walk of the Blommer Chocolate Company will speak on the WCF and sustainable cocoa at the American Association of Candy Technologist's annual September meeting.
- Bill Guyton travels to South Africa on September 22 to represent the Foundation at USAID's Agriculture, Environment and Private Sector Workshop. Bill will speak on "Developing a Sustainable Cocoa Supply Chain."
World Cocoa Foundation Regional Program News
West Africa
West Africa
Farmer Field School Training is off to a great start in the Ivory Coast, according to Robert Yapo, the Sustainable Tree Crop Program's coordinator for that country. Farmers are being trained on proper sustainable cocoa growing techniques, child labor sensitization and cocoa marketing. After one training session, a farmer cooperative, on its own, decided to create a small committee to sensitize farmers in the community on the child labor issue. ANADER, the Ivory Coast's National Extension Agency, has expressed interest in using the STCP's Farmer Field School approach in its own farmer training efforts.
Latin America
The World Cocoa Foundation recently signed an agreement with USDA's Agricultural Research Service for a farmer training and applied research program in Ecuador. The program will complement the Ecuadorian cocoa farmer training program set to begin in October through a collaborative effort between USAID, Associates in Rural Development and the Foundation.
Southeast Asia
More than thirty-five thousand Indonesian cocoa farmers have been trained on the sustainable use of frequent harvesting, pruning, field sanitation and fertilizers to control cocoa pod borer infestation since the SUCCESS program's inception in 2001. USDA's major role in the project ended in June and the new SUCCESS ALLIANCE project, with major support from USAID, has begun. The project is expanding its geographical reach from South Sulawesi to West Papua and Vietnam.
A program to develop sustainable cocoa growing capabilities in Vietnam has met with much success over the past year. Through the support of USAID & USDA, seedling nurseries and bud wood gardens have been established to provide sources of materials for planting. Concentric cocoa farms, established with the help of World Cocoa Foundation trainers, provide a view of best sustainable practices for Vietnam's cocoa farmers. The trees are planted under coconut, longan, fruit, black pepper, coffee, cashew nut and timber trees. Total cocoa plantings in Vietnam are 1,000 hectares.
Website Traffic Up
The number of visitors to the World Cocoa Foundation's web site continues to grow with the site receiving nearly 80,000 hits for the month of August. Visitors are staying on the site almost 10 minutes per visit, a long time in the web page world. About 15% of the visitors are international.