CocoaAction Brasil

CocoaAction Brasil priorities

Farmers

• Productivity improvement
• Cocoa quality improvement
• Farm management improvement
• Prevention of pests & diseases

Community

• Better working and living conditions for cocoa growers
• Strengthening of farmers’ organizations
• Youth, gender, and family succession

Planet

• Deforestation control & promotion of reforestation
• Conservation and restoration of Areas of Permanent Preservation and Legal Reserves
• Improvement of agroforestry systems

Enabling environment

• Organization towards more efficiency
• Access to credit & land legalization
• Cocoa supply chain information management

All activities are implemented by engaging members and partners throughout the supply chain. CocoaAction Brasil has an estimated duration of five years, from 2018 to 2022. The goal is to leave a legacy of collaboration and collective action, so that the Brazilian cocoa sector continues to work together for long-lasting results in sustainability.

Opportunities

Current opportunities in Brazilian cocoa include the country’s status as a leader in the areas of reforestation and biodiversity preservation by cocoa through the country’s agroforestry and cabruca production models. Recent developments in the sector in Pará also hold promise for modeling much higher farm-level productivity.

Challenges

Challenges noted are low productivity on smallholder farms that ranges from 200-500 kilograms per hectare, too few farmer organizations and low farmer incomes, pest and disease threats, in particular the devastating Frosty Pod Rot (Moniliophthora roreri), and a domestic supply gap that means Brazil must import approximately 70,000 tons of cocoa annually.

Expertise and lessons learned

WCF initiated efforts that led to the creation of CocoaAction Brasil facilitate company implementation and measurement of the strategy, identify opportunities to lend expertise in policy discussions, fill resource gaps, and generate new insights and learnings to amplify CocoaAction’s impact.

CocoaAction Brasil benefits further from lessons learned through the ongoing implementation of a similar initiative also known as CocoaAction that has been tailored to address needs in the West African nations of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which are the world’s top two producers of cocoa.

CocoaAction Brasil is also drawing on the expertise of cocoa sector partners through a Technical Committee that includes Ceplac, Embrapa, Cocoa Innovation Center, agricultural extension agencies such as Emater-RO, Incaper, Emater-PA, Bahiater, and Empaer-MT, UTZ/Rainforest Alliance, AIPC, ABICAB, SENAR (National Rural Learning Service), and Brazilian representatives of the initiative’s chocolate and cocoa industry members.

Annual Cocoa Forum

The Annual Cocoa Forum is a national and annual event organized by CocoaAction Brasil with the objective of sharing successful experiences and discussing solutions for the construction of a more sustainable cocoa sector with representatives from the Brazilian cocoa supply chain. The Forum has been held since 2018 and convenes supply chain stakeholders, specialists, and cocoa and chocolate associations and entities. The event covers topics such as sustainable production, cocoa growing and processing, and productivity.