In what has become an annual ritual, Ghana’s Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) managed to secure a $1.5 billion financing facility for the 2010/11 cocoa harvest. In a sign that international credit markets have eased up, the financing facility was oversubscribed. Banks from around the world actually offered $1.8 billion while COCOBOD was only seeking $1.2 billion. In light of the easy credit, COCOBOD increased the facility to $1.5 billion. In another piece of good news, the interest rate dropped from 250 points to 90 points over LIBOR.
Last week, the Hershey company released its Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Like many of such reports, it’s full of pretty pictures and statistics. What it does not mention is that Hershey is the only large chocolate maker in the US which has not yet participated in some form of third party certification for sourcing its cocoa. I’m not talking fair trade here, I’m talking any form of third party certification.
The folks at the International Labor Rights Forum have released their own report and it highlights four areas in which Hershey should make dramatic changes:
Sourcing – Hershey has no system in place to ensure that its cocoa is not produced with abusive child labor;
Transparency – Hershey does not reveal its cocoa suppliers, making verification impossible;
Greenwashing – Hershey points to is donations, but, again, there’s not system in place to address child labor;
Certification – Hershey has refused to enter into any certification, only a few of its Dagoba line bars are certified.
Given its long history of concern for working people and the social conscience of its founder, it remains a puzzle why Hershey is not doing the right thing when it comes to sourcing cocoa from certified reputable sources.
In July, I posted several comments on the attempt by Anthony Ward of Armajaro to corner the cocoa futures market by purchasing seven percent of the world supply of cocoa beans. Well, it turns out that he lost his bet. Rather than continue to increase, cocoa futures prices are down. Dramatically down, to be specific. When Ward bought his 240,410 tons, he paid about £2,700/ton. As of September 13, the London price of cocoa has dropped to £1,847. His stocks of cocoa have therefore lost about £205 million in value since July.
It was only a question of time before it would happen, but on Wednesday, the New York Times (and many other news outlets) announced that two teams of scientists had sequenced the complete DNA chain of the cocoa tree. Most appropriately, the news appeared in the business section, not the science section. The two rival teams, one financed by Mars, the other a collaboration between French government laboratories and the University of Pennsylvania backed by Hershey, were quick to dispel any worries that the DNA sequence would become private property. The information will be freely available. The Mars project can be found at the Cocoa Genome Project website.
2,600 delegates to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kuapa Kokoo elected Christina Ohene Agyare as new president of the cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Ghana. Ms Agyare is fifty-one and owns an eleven acre cocoa farm in the the Kwabeng Society in the Atiwa District, Eastern Region of the country. She is one of five women elected to the national executive of the cooperative at the AGM. She succeeds PCK Buah and her terms runs until 2014. Previously, she served as treasurer and recorder of her local society.
Ms. Agyare takes over a cooperative of 45,000 farmers that has produced and delivered 28,000 tons of cocoa. The cooperative also owns 45 percent of the fairtrade chocolate maker Divine Chocolate in the UK. For more information, check the story are Divine’s website.
Sophie Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate said in a press release: “Ayekoo! We congratulate Christiana on her election as the first woman President of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union and very much look forward to working closely with her in growing Divine, Kuapa’s chocolate company. We would also like to thank Mr. Buah and the outgoing members of the NEC who have worked diligently for last 4 years, listening to the membership, introducing a new constitution and leading Kuapa through a challenging period., and for Mr Buah’s welcome influence on Divine business.”
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