GRAND BASSAM, Ivory Coast — Workers carefully dehusked the cocoa beans so they wouldn’t break and tipped them onto metal trays that their colleagues slid into the oven. With the aroma of the chocolate, the artisan Marie-France Cossolo prepared her journey to make the next batch of chocolates.
About 6 million people depend on the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa, the world’s largest cocoa producer. However, most of them are not involved in the processing of crispy and sour beans that turn into sweet treats.
Instead, they focus on growing, harvesting and selling raw cocoa beans to Europe, largely excluded from the economic benefits generated by the lucrative chocolate industry. It’s not raw cacao that’s being sold, it’s chocolate made overseas, and the money is flowing to larger foreign producers.
But in recent years, a new generation of Ivory Coast chocolatiers is trying to change that equation. Chocolatiers, partly funded by the government and international aid agencies, turn cocoa beans into cocoa powders, beverages, chocolate bars and other products in Côte d’Ivoire. She hopes to develop a local chocolate industry whose income will flow to farmers and other cocoa workers like her. . Kosoro.
At Choco+, the workshop where Kozoro works, more than a dozen employees roast and grind cacao beans to make chocolate paste and cocoa tea.
“Thanks to cacao, I’m getting better little by little,” says Kozoro, 30, a single mother who works long hours at a Chinese restaurant. At Choco+, she earns 50% more than the country’s minimum wage of about $94 a month, and her shift allows her to pick up her 3-year-old daughter from school across the street at a reasonable time. can go to
Similar efforts to spur domestic chocolate industries have begun in other cocoa-producing countries in West Africa, such as Ghana and Nigeria.
Compared to Europe, cocoa consumption in this region remains low. In Côte d’Ivoire, it is estimated at about £1 per person per year. However, it is increasing in various cocoa-based products.
chocolate bar While it tends to be favored by foreigners, West Africans prefer other delicacies such as cocoa praline, cocoa butter, cocoa powder and chocolate spread. entrepreneur We are also developing a chocolate drink that mixes cocoa-flavoured beer, liqueur, vinegar and bouillet, the juice of the baobab tree.
“The message for Côte d’Ivoire cocoa has always been export, export, export,” said Hervé Dobinou, Manager of Choco+. “But there was no communication about cocoa consumption here.”
The Côte d’Ivoire government is working to promote ventures like Choco+, which produces a range of cocoa-based products, as well as larger industrial companies that can help build the country’s chocolate industry.
“Processing beans in Côte d’Ivoire can mean more income, more jobs and new markets for Ivorian people,” says Côte d’Ivoire Fairtrade, a non-profit organization representing cocoa growers. Network coordinator Frank Corman said.
The need for better wages is immense. world bankand most of them have never tasted chocolate.
One afternoon, near the central Ivory Coast town of Bouafle, Sylvain Kofi Kona walked through his cacao plantation and handed cash to two young workers who had just removed the leaves and cacao pods. He lost one of his arms in a motorcycle accident four years ago, leaving him with a limp.
Mr. Kona and his crew grow cacao the way it has been done for decades. In small fields, ripe pods are cut from cocoa trees in spring and fall and dried on tarpaulins or banana leaves to extract the white, fleshy beans. They sell the beans to local cooperatives and buyers in nearby markets.
This task is tedious and too complex to be automated. Yield is low. The price of a pound of cocoa in Ivory Coast has fallen from 70 cents last year to 56 cents this year due to several factors, including fluctuating demand and successful negotiations by big players in the industry. Still, many farmers like Kona sell cheaper to buyers who present cash rather than checks. This is because banks are not easy to find in rural areas of the country.
This summer, the pain in her arm became unbearable, so Kona said she sold about 100 pounds of cocoa beans for about 35 cents a pound so she could buy medicine quickly.
Many farmers say growing other crops, such as cassava or maize, is easier and more profitable and helps them feed their families. However, they remain loyal to cacao out of national pride.
“We were born with cocoa. It’s in our blood,” said François Dacise Mbla, a cocoa farmer and a friend of Kona’s. “You can’t escape it. Cocoa pulls you in.”
To increase the income of cocoa farmers, the Ivory Coast government will invest around $1.6 billion in a major overhaul of the industry. Part of it will fund companies that convert the beans into cocoa-based products.
Côte d’Ivoire’s economy minister, Adama Koulibaly, said that more than 60 years after the country’s independence, 70% of its cocoa production leaves the country as raw cocoa beans, losing most of its revenue. said to be difficult to understand.
Côte d’Ivoire accounts for about 45% of the world’s cocoa production, but only about 7% of the world’s revenue from commodities.
Couribaly added that converting raw beans into a more profitable product that could be exported and sold domestically could significantly reduce poverty rates across the country by nearly 40%. .
Seeking to attract more domestic customers, local businesses are turning to attractive marketing arguments.They say cacao has cardiovascular benefits and its beans have aphrodisiacs. may have benefits.
On a recent morning at Choco+, 55-year-old customer Benjamin Nda purchased cocoa tea, cocoa butter and a few ounces of roasted beans. His Nda, a physics professor with diabetes, said eating five beans every day for the past few months helped lower his blood pressure.
He and his wife have also noticed other benefits, he said. One night, after his wife ate beans, he ate beans too. Then they both went to five beans, Nda said with a smile.
“Trust me,” he added shyly.
Rukmane Koulibaly Contributed to the report from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Maddie Kamala Contributed research from Dakar, Senegal.