Cocoa production

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Cocoa production

Answer 1

Environmental effects of cocoa production

The environmental effects of cocoa production

Cocoa Beans are a high demand consumer item all over the world. They are used in products such as chocolate, candy bars, drinks and cocoa powder. However, cocoa farming and the production of cocoa beans are extremely fragile and labour-intensive processes. The process begins with a Cacao plant, or Theobroma cacao, in which the beans are extracted from pods that grow directly on branches. Each pod contains roughly 30 to 50 beans. After the beans are extracted they must go through a time-consuming process of natural fermenting and drying. The farming process of cocoa can damage the environment depending on the practices of the farmer, as well as be limited by the environment itself. Global Climate Change, for example, causes longer drought seasons making it more difficult for farmers to plant and sustain new Cacao trees. Most of the environmental impact comes from CO₂.

Cocoa farming can only occur 15 degrees north or south of the Equator. It can take approximately three years after planting for the trees to be fruitful enough to harvest the pods. Cocoa pods are pollinated by tiny flies called midges. Ripe cocoa pods, which are yellow in colour, are then cut down from the trees using a machete. Use of a machete in this fashion, termed machete technology, prevents disease from spreading among cocoa pods, and thereby decreases the need for pesticides. The pods can be very low on branches and easily accessible or higher up on thick branches. Once they are gathered, they are sliced open and the cocoa beans are extracted from the pods. The beans are then spread out, usually between banana leaves, for a number of days to ferment. Next, the seeds are placed in the sun to dry for several more days. After drying, they are gathered, placed into bags and taken to collection offices. From there, they are shipped around the world to be processed into end products.

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Answer 2

The Dark Side of Chocolate

The Dark Side of Chocolate is a 2010 documentary film about the exploitation and slavetrading of African children to harvest chocolate still occurring nearly ten years after the cocoa industry pledged to end it.

Cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast provide 80% of the world with chocolate, according to CorpWatch. Chocolate producers around the world have been pressured to “verify that their chocolate is not the product of child labor or slavery.”

In 2000, BBC aired Slavery: A Global Investigation which brought the issue of child labor in the cocoa industry to light.

In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and its members signed a document that prohibited child trafficking and labor in the cocoa industry after 2008. Despite this effort, numerous children are still forced to work on cocoa plantations in Africa.

In 2009, Mars and Cadbury joined the Rainforest Alliance to fight against child labor. By 2020, these major chocolate manufacturers hope to completely eradicate child labor on any plantations from which they purchase their cocoa.

The Dark Side of Chocolate was directed by Danish journalist Miki Mistrati who investigated the use of child labor and trafficked children in chocolate production. It was filmed by U. Roberto Romano and produced by Helle Faber.

The filming started in Germany, where Mistrati asked vendors where their chocolate comes from. They then flew to Mali, where many of the children are from. Next, they explored the Ivory Coast where the cocoa plantations are located. The film ends in Switzerland where both the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Nestle headquarters are located.

Much of the footage in this documentary is recorded using a secret camera.

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Answer 3

Fair trade cocoa

Fair trade cocoa' is an agricultural product harvested from the cacao tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.

In the 1990s, approximately 90 percent of the world’s cocoa was produced on small, family managed farms, primarily in West Africa and Latin America. Local collectors and intermediaries purchase and transport the cocoa to exporters and processors. Many farmers are unaware of the final destination and value of their cocoa. Low prices and increasing need for fertilizer often created labor shortage, leading to child and slave labor in many West African countries with cocoa production.

Fair trade cocoa certification was created to overcome these problems. The first fair trade certification of a cocoa product was arranged by the Max Havelaar Foundation of the Netherlands in 1994. The product was Green & Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate, which was made with cocoa from Belize. The Max Havelaar Foundation was also the first Fairtrade Certification Mark. The Dutch foundation has now incorporated itself into Fairtrade International (FLO), a nonprofit organization with 25 member countries that use fair trade certification labels.

In 2002, Fair Trade USA, which at that time had been incorporated into Fair Trade International (FLO), started certifying fair trade cocoa products sold in the United States. In September 2011, Fair Trade USA split from Fair Trade International (FLO).

In 2001, the issue of forced labour in cocoa production was brought to the public's attention by a series of articles published in the United States by Sudarsan Raghavan, Sumana Chaterjee, and the Knight Ridder news agency. They included interviews with victims of child trafficking for cocoa production. Noting that the United States has laws against importing goods produced using slave labor, Congressman Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin proposed to enact a “slave-free” label for chocolate. The United States cocoa industry lobbied against this, and the mandatory labeling proposal was reduced to a voluntary system. Under this system, known as the , chocolate producers pledged that by July 1, 2005, they would use “standards…consistent with applicable federal law, that ensure cocoa beans and their derivative products have been produced without the worst forms of child labor.”

The publicity surrounding these events increased consumer demand for fair trade certified chocolate.

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Answer 4

Forcipomyia squamipennis

Forcipomyia squamipennis is a biting midge species in the genus Forcipomyia. It is an important pollinator of cacao trees (Theobroma cacao) in Ghana, and other related midges pollinate the tree in other parts of the tropics.

Forcipomyia squamipennis is an important pollinator of the cacao tree Theobroma cacao in Ghana, not because it pollinates more effectively than other insects but because it is so numerous in cacao plantations. The population is greatest in the rainy season. Adult midges spend the day in shady spots such as between the buttress roots of large trees, in crevices in logs, in hollow stumps or in piles of husk debris. They emerge at variable times of day to swarm near their hiding locations, and disperse in the late afternoons and early mornings. Most midges do not move further than about 6 m (20 ft). The females lay batches of up to about ninety eggs on damp piles of plant debris. The eggs hatch after two or three days and the larvae pass through four instar stages before pupating at about twelve days. The adults survive for about a week and there are thought to be about twelve generations of the midge per year. Both sexes feed on the pollen of the cacao flower, but four times more males visit the flowers than do females.

Midges in the family Ceratopogonidae are believed to be the most important pollinators of cacao globally, particularly the larger members of the family. The tree flowers profusely but few flowers set, particularly in the dry season; when the tree is under water stress all flowers are dropped within about five days. Successful pollination requires the deposition of at least 35 suitable pollen grains on the receptive parts of the flower, and is dependent on the season.

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Answer 5

Ghana Cocoa Board

The Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) is a Ghanaian government-controlled institution that fixes the buying price for cocoa in Ghana, the world's second largest producer of the commodity. The price-fixing is intended to protect farmers from the volatile prices on the world market. While an overwhelming majority of cocoa is covered by the Cocobod, some special types of cocoa are not included, such as some fair trade, organic and high-quality beans. Besides the price-fixing, the organisation sells higher quality hybrid seeds, and does some research on cocoa plant-related diseases.

Between 1947 and 1979, the institution was known as the Cocoa Marketing Board.

In 1937, farmers in Gold Coast, a colony of the British Empire equal to contemporary Ghana, refused to continue selling cocoa at the low prices set by European merchants and decided to withhold cocoa from the market. The strike went on for 8 months, until the British government acted by setting up the Nowell Commission of Enquiry to investigate the issue. The Nowell Commission report advised the government to assist cocoa farmers by establishing a Marketing Board.

In 1940, the government established the West African Produce Control Board to purchase cocoa under guaranteed prices from all West African countries. It operated throughout World War II and was dissolved in 1946.

The Ghana Marketing Board was established by ordinance in 1947 with the sum of 27 million Ghanaian Cedi as its initial working capital. In 1979, this Board was dissolved and reconstituted as the Ghana Cocoa Board.

In 1984 Cocobod underwent institutional reform aimed at subjecting the cocoa sector to market forces. Cocobod's role was reduced, and 40 percent of its staff, or at least 35,000 employees, were dismissed. Furthermore, the government shifted responsibility for crop transport to the private sector. Subsidies for production inputs (fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and equipment) were removed, and there was a measure of privatization of the processing sector through at least one joint venture. In addition, a new payment system known as the Akuafo Check System was introduced in 1982 at the point of purchase of dried beans.

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Answer 6

International Cocoa Organization

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is a global organization, composed of both cocoa producing and cocoa consuming countries with a membership. Located in London, ICCO was established in 1973 to put into effect the first International Cocoa Agreement which was negotiated in Geneva at a United Nations International Cocoa Conference. There have since been seven Agreements. The Seventh International Cocoa Agreement was negotiated in Geneva in 2010 and came into force provisionally on 1 October 2012.

On 2 November 2005, the total percentage of exporting countries which had acceded to the Agreement surpassed 80%. Thus, the International Cocoa Agreement, 2001 entered into force definitively for the first time in the 30-year history of the International Cocoa Agreements. ICCO Member countries represent almost 85% of world cocoa production and more than 60% of world cocoa consumption. All Members are represented in the International Cocoa Council, the highest governing body of the ICCO.

The two most important breakthroughs of the present International Cocoa Agreement were the establishment of an explicit on a Sustainable World Cocoa Economy and the founding of the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy.

The Consultative Board consists of fourteen international experts in the cocoa sector, all from the private sector (seven from cocoa producing Member countries and seven from cocoa consuming Member countries). However, the Board, whose mandate is as extensive as that of the International Cocoa Council and comprises all aspects of the world cocoa economy, only functions in an advisory capacity, as all final decisions are taken by the International Cocoa Council. The Consultative Board was established in recognition of the importance of the private sector in the world cocoa economy and of the increasingly important role that trade and industry have been playing in ICCO.

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Answer 7

Koundi et le jeudi national

Koundi et le jeudi national is a 2010 documentary film.

Koundi is a large village with around 1,200 inhabitants, located in Cameroon's East Province. Aware of Koundi's richness in timber, the villagers decide to use it to alleviate poverty. They organise a union, the Organisation for Communal Interests, and create a cocoa plantation over several hectares to be able to depend on themselves. They also institute "National Thursday": Once a month, they all work on the development of the cocoa plantation. Village life is shown through the prism of self-management.

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Answer 8

List of cacao diseases

Like other crops cocoa can be attacked by a number of pest species including fungal diseases, insects and rodents - some of which (e.g. frosty pod rot and cocoa pod borer) have increased dramatically in geographical range and are sometimes described as "invasive species".

Phytophthora capsici
Phytophthora citrophthora
Phytophthora heveae
Phytophthora megakarya
Phytophthora palmivora

Rosellinia bunodes
Rosellinia pepo

Phytophthora citrophthora
Phytophthora palmivora

Armillariella mellea
Armillariella tabescens

Nectria rigidiuscula
= Fusarium decemcellulare

Lasiodiplodia theobromae
= Botryodiplodia theobromae

Phytophthora capsici
Phytophthora citrophthora
Phytophthora hevae
Phytophthora megakarya
Phytophthora palmivora

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Answer 9

Organic chocolate

Organic chocolate is chocolate which has been certified organic. As of 2016, it was a growing sector in the global chocolate industry. organic chocolate is a socially-desirable product for some consumers. Major brands, such as The Hershey Company, have begun to produce organic chocolate.

Many, if not most, producers of organic chocolate source their ingredients from certified fair trade cocoa farms and cooperatives. Organic chocolate comes in many varieties, including milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. Major brands of organic chocolate include Britain-based Green & Black's, Hershey-owned Dagoba Chocolate, and Equal Exchange. Less-known retailers include Taza Chocolate, Pacari Chocolate, and Sacred Chocolate, a brand noted for producing raw chocolate.

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Answer 10

Theobroma cacao

Genomic information

Theobroma cacao is the taxonomic classification for the plant also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, which is a small (4–8 m (13–26 ft) tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae, native to the deep tropical regions of Central and South America. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, confectionery, ganache and chocolate.

Leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) long and 5–20 cm (2.0–7.9 in) broad.

The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; this is known as cauliflory. The flowers are small, 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) diameter, with pink calyx. The floral formula is ✶ K5 C5 A(5°+5²) G(5). While many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees (Hymenoptera) or butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera), cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, Forcipomyia midges in the subfamily Forcipomyiinae. Having the natural pollinator Forcipomyia midges for Theobroma cacao was shown to have more fruit production than using artificial pollinators. The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (5.9–11.8 in) long and 8–10 cm (3.1–3.9 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1.1 lb) when ripe. The pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp. The seeds are the main ingredient of chocolate, while the pulp is used in some countries to prepare refreshing juice, smoothies, jelly, and nata. The fermented pulp, until recently discarded in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Peru, is now being distilled there into a popular alcoholic beverage sold in the United States. Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50%) as cocoa butter. Their most noted active constituent is theobromine, a compound similar to caffeine.

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