Who Is Paying $10,000 For Cocoa?- CGCI Asks Cocoa Buyers

 The Executive Secretary of the CGCI is of the view that global cocoa buyers have always exploited the market to their benefits, a development he believes always leaves farmers and producing countries at the bottom of an inequitable trade regime.In the midst of the increasing prices of cocoa on the global market, farmers and civil society groups in producing countries are making a strong demand on governments in producing countries to apply the $10,000 Dollars as the basis for payment to reflect current trends.

Asanvo observed, as he joined panelists on Monday to discuss the topic “The quest for the living income of smallholder farmers: why are we stuck and how can we fix it?”According to Mr.

Asanvo there are excessive demands from buyers on producing countries without commensurate actions from the market players themselves, stressing that there is lack of trust, consistency and stability in all facets of arrangements amongst the various key stakeholders in the global cocoa value chain which have over the year impinged effective implementation of policies and programmes, including the Living Income Differentials (LID) for the benefit of farmers.Whilst touting the significant progress made in the strong advocacy for a living income for farmers, which in the last five years assumed a front seat in global discussion resulting in the introduction of the LID, the CGCI Executive Director said more needed to be done to actualize an ideal compensation for the toil and sweat of farmers.“We all know, that from whatever position we’re seeing it from, we owe farmers a living income.

The peripherical idea of a living income for farmers – has come to the center of the conversation.

He said.The Executive Director of the CGCI also advocated for consistency on issues of sustainability, stressing that living income should be mainstreamed across the sustainability regulations of exporting and importing countries.

According to him, sustainability voluntary programs should reward farmers with a living income or living income price, since the issue of sustainable cocoa cannot be attained without paying farmers a living income.Mr.

Asanvo advocated for a stable and predictable market forces to help shape expectations towards an ambitious plan that guarantees a living income for farmers, asserting that “producing need a predictable floor price, with a dedicated mechanism to deliver it irrespective of terminal market prices since history shows that commodity markets are prone to price falls as sudden as price rises – and sadly for farmers, falls are way longer than rises.”