Certification of organic cocoa
Training of thousands of farmers
Sustainable and organic cocoa production appears to be an efficient way to improve livelihoods without depleting natural resources. That is why we support farmers towards the official certification of their organic cocoa in Ghana. An interesting example is the Cocoa Organic Farmers Association (COFA): we upgraded the quality of the cocoa and the income of more than 350 COFA-farmers. We also trained around 400 farmers on fairtrade organic standards. And we support more cocoa projects in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire: most of them for organic with one or more additional certifications, such as Rainforest Alliance .Implementation of organic and fairtrade standards
We train farmers on organic and fairtrade standards and practices. Then, step by step, we implement the requirements of the organic supply chain. At the end, we safeguard marketing and sales. The premium of around 20 % for organic cocoa over the farm gate price is highly interesting for farmers who largely depend on the fixed price levels that Ghana Cocobod has set. For a glimpse behind the scenes, please watch the recent Dutch movie about the COFA-project.Strict control by third parties
Inspectors of accreditation organisations such as Control Union visit the farms and issue the certification labels of organic production. This means that all consecutive steps in the production, harvesting and sales phase are checked by independent authorities.For more information about our support re. certification programmes or other value chain development actitvities, please contact Willem-Albert Toose, area manager of West-Africa.
