Long-Term Sustainability Starts with a Pathway for Farmer Viability
The Alliance, a USAID-supported public-private partnership implemented by Palladium, is executing a strategy to help farmers expand from an average of one hectare to at least five hectares (with a current average of about three) while raising productivity from 600 kg/ha to over 1,200 kg/ha. The supply chain gains additional value by facilitating investment in centralized post-harvest processing, which together with the development of fine-flavor profiles, will increase prices per unit (already an average of 20-30% higher per kg). This three-pronged strategy, namely 1) an increase in 25,000 hectares of higher yielding fine flavor cacao, 2) multiple Supply Chain Managers aggregating and processing high quality beans, and 3) direct links to buyers, will result in value increases of perhaps 10 times across the value chain.