Africa-Press – Gambia. The Swiss food giant has enrolled 11,000 farming households in the leading agricultural region of Cote d’Ivoire in a program that pays farmers $535 in bonuses, and is expanding the program to neighboring Ghana.
Although Swiss Nestle is expanding a program to increase the incomes of poor African farmers, wages are still well below the workers’ needs, media reported.
“Those in the program still earn almost $3,000 a year below the amount of just over $7,500 that’s needed to live a decent life — a gap highlighting a systemic challenge for the cocoa industry,” the outlet said.
For cocoa producers not participating in the program, the difference was reported to be nearly $4,000.
The program offers a bonus of up to $535 annually to participating families who fulfill certain criteria, such as ensuring their children attend school regularly and adopting high-quality farming practices like effective pruning.
A legacy of low farm wages is preventing West African producers from investing in plantations, making it harder to cope with extreme weather and crop disease, and risking a supply crisis like the one that sent prices soaring to record highs this year, media said.
“An issue is that farmers in Ivory Coast and Ghana miss out on most of the benefits of surging cocoa prices,” the outlet added.
Nestle aims to expand its income accelerator program to Ghana, targeting a total of 30,000 families this year. The company envisions reaching 160,000 households across its global cocoa supply chain by 2030.In mid-March, the exchange value of cocoa beans in the world reached a new peak of $11,000 per tonne, which is twice as much as the record set in 1977.
The International Cocoa Organization reported in January that the two-year global cocoa bean deficit will continue into 2024, while shipping difficulties in the Red Sea will support the current trend of rising prices for the commodity.
The increase in cocoa prices is also due to low yields in West Africa, where approximately 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown. The low yields are caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, an above-average sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean that affects global climate conditions, causing higher temperatures and heavy rainfall in the region.
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