Kraft Foods enters new cocoa partnership

Working together, the cocoa Partnership and USAID hope to increase the yield and quality of Dominican cocoa, while improving farmer livelihoods and communities.

The programme will reach 10,000 small-scale cocoa farmers of the Conacado cooperative with training on farming techniques, post-harvest practices and supplemental income opportunities.

The cocoa Partnership, established by Cadbury in 2008, has committed £45m to invest in cocoa farming in Ghana, India, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean over 10 years.

The programme is already in 100 Ghanaian communities, with plans to double in size by the end of the year. The Partnership has forged successful alliances with The Ghana Cocoa Board and Kuapa Kokoo, a Fairtrade co-op comprised of 60,000 farmers and their families.

Bharat Puri, senior vice president, Kraft Foods, said: “As we’ve seen in Ghana, the cocoa partnership’s success depends on the collaborations we establish. The challenges facing today’s cocoa farmer cannot be solved by any one company or organisation. Only by working together-public and private sectors along with farmers and civil society-will we be able to make the difference that’s needed.”

Mark Feierstein, USAID’s assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, said: “Public-private partnerships like this one are a key part of USAID’s development strategy in the Latin American and Caribbean region, because it has benefits for all the stakeholders. Small farmers earn more money, businesses have access to a higher quality product and USAID leverages its resources so that we can reach more people. We couldn’t ask for a better alliance.”

Source: Kraft Foods