Fairtrade cocoa
When you pick up Fairtrade chocolate in your local FoodCoop store, the farmers who grew the cocoa get a fairer deal. In Honduras, one co-operative has used that deal to recover from hurricanes, plant more than a million trees and build its own chocolate factory.
Where does cocoa come from?
Cocoa grows in hot, humid parts of the world, mainly West Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia.
Côte d'Ivoire produces more cocoa than any other country. Around six million people around the world depend on cocoa farming for their living.
Growing cocoa is hard work. Farmers split open the ripe pods, ferment the beans for up to seven days, then dry, clean and pack them. Even so, many cocoa farmers live in poverty.
How does climate change affect cocoa farmers?
Unpredictable weather, pests and plant diseases are all making cocoa harder to grow.
The Fairtrade Foundation says many farmers in the countries most exposed to climate change see it as the biggest challenge they face. They've also done the least to cause it.
Low prices add to the pressure. When farmers need to grow more cocoa to get by, farms can spread into forests, which adds to the climate crisis.
What happened when hurricanes hit Honduras?
At the end of 2020, Hurricanes Eta and Iota brought floods and landslides to Honduras, destroying crops and cutting off roads.
Farmers at COAGRICSAL, a Fairtrade co-operative, lost farms and homes. Óscar Serrano, one of the co-operative's founders, has described how painful it was to see so much destroyed.
It wasn't the first time these farmers had faced the effects of climate change, and they had already started to adapt.
How does Fairtrade help cocoa farmers?
Fairtrade gives cocoa farmers a safety net when prices fall, plus extra money to invest in the projects they choose.
More than 450,000 farmers grow Fairtrade cocoa. They're paid at least the Fairtrade Minimum Price, which protects them when market prices drop. The Minimum Price is even higher for organic cocoa.
They also receive the Fairtrade Premium, an extra sum paid on top of the price. In 2023, Fairtrade cocoa producers earned €57 million in Premium. Farmers decide together how to spend it, for example on replacing old cocoa trees.
That year, 398 Fairtrade cocoa producer organisations produced more than 711,000 tonnes of Fairtrade cocoa.
How did the Premium help build a chocolate factory?
COAGRICSAL used Fairtrade Premium to help build the Xol chocolate factory in Copán, which opened in early 2020.
It's the largest chocolate factory of its kind in the region.
Young women manage and run the factory. In an area where gender roles can be traditional, that gives them decision-making power and positions of responsibility.
How are the farmers protecting their land?
The farmers have planted more than 1.2 million cocoa trees, plus more than 300,000 taller canopy trees to shade them.
The co-operative set up tree nurseries to grow the cocoa plants, part-funded by the Fairtrade Premium.
The canopy trees keep off the increasingly hot sun and help stop soil washing away. They also absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and give wildlife food and a place to live. Some provide farmers with food or extra income too.
How you can make a difference
You can join in. Look for the Fairtrade Mark on chocolate next time you're in your local FoodCoop store.