Sweet returns for empowered cocoa producers

A Swiss co-founded initiative aimed at revolutionising cocoa production in Peru is empowering farmers and turning them into entrepreneurs. “Let’s bring down the stock market!” one person shouted after the three dozen cocoa producers, assembled in the jungle community of Santa Rosa, voted to receive 50-90% more than the price normally paid by cocoa traders in the region. The men and women at the meeting, who also came from neighbouring Pucallpillo, are shareholders in Peru’s first producer-owned chocolate company, Choba Choba. The discussions at the general assembly - set amid cacao trees, stilted homes and free-range chickens - were unprecedented in the industry. “Normally what is done in the chocolate business is the cacao farmer produces cocoa and it is sold to the big players who make the big margins when they sell the chocolate,” explained Christoph Inauen, one of Choba Choba’s co-founders. The Swiss is a former cocoa buyer for a large Swiss retailer. He ...