Cocoa Talks: Boosting sustainability in the cocoa sector

While April’s Cocoa Talks ended with an interesting discussion on regulations and due diligence, May has been a rich month for the EU’s virtual roundtables on sustainable cocoa. Building on the European Green Deal as a top policy priority of the European Union, this series of dialogues builds on the Living Income Differential initiative of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and the EU priorities of sustainable supply chains, job creation and investments.

The Cocoa Talks session held earlier in May centred on sustainable cocoa production through a focus on two key messages: cocoa production needs to shift towards a more sustainable agroforestry model, and prices must increase to fund this transition. To achieve this, the European Commission will support the implementation of agroforestry initiatives in producer countries, and work to accelerate national strategies for transitioning to sustainable agroforestry production systems.

Later in the month, a second session built on these ideas through discussions on mobilizing development cooperation and finance. The Team Europe initiative was a pillar of the roundtable, and therefore stressed by EU and Germany representatives in the dialogue.

FAO Investment Centre Director Mohamed Manssouri presented key technical support initiatives for the cocoa sector, and underscored the importance of infrastructure, social capital, policy dialogue, best practices and innovation as significant drivers of change. He also highlighted the value of farmers’ access to finance, and the potential for blended financing, stressing that “the importance of understanding and adapting financial products to sustain transformation at country level is crucial.”

Participants called for investments across the entire value chain, including on aspects such as the formalization of land tenure, the strengthening of smallholder organizations, support for income diversification, promoting women’s empowerment and working to eliminate child labour.