How Ben & Jerry’s and Barry Callebaut are enabling Fairtrade cocoa farmers to invest in their futures

Ben & Jerry’s is working jointly with Fairtrade, Sustainable Food Lab and Barry Callebaut to make an even greater impact on improving the livelihoods of farmers.

The company already sources Fairtrade ingredients for its ice creams, but it wanted to go further to address the systemic problems of low incomes for cocoa farmers.

In 2016, Ben & Jerry’s started funding an innovative pilot, part of the Producer Development Initiative (PDI), which is being implemented on the ground by Barry Callebaut in partnership with Fairtrade Africa.

The initiative works with three Fairtrade cocoa co-operatives in Côte d’Ivoire – Coopaza, Capressa and Coobadi – to develop stronger business partnerships and to increase the incomes of their 3,800 farmer members. Fairtrade have seen how this holistic approach ultimately ensures farming communities are more resilient to the problems of poverty, child labour and climate change.

Living incomes

By putting living incomes at the heart of this programme, Ben & Jerry’s and Barry Callebaut are enabling Fairtrade cocoa farmers to invest in their futures. Ben & Jerry’s has worked closely with their cocoa supplier Barry Callebaut to develop an innovative technical support programme and to date, nearly 900 farmers have participated in state-of-the-art farmerfield programmes.
Farmers are supported to invest in rejuvenating their farms with individualised plans and access to tools, financing and ongoing coaching. Farmers with older trees face low yields and are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Planting new trees is expensive and can result in loss of income for up to five years, so the programme helps farmers to invest in tree replanting by providing multi-year technical support and sharing costs. Moreover, throughout this period, farmers have the security of the Fairtrade Premium generated from cocoa sales, and they choose to invest this in whatever suits their individual needs.

Early successes witnessed so far in the programme suggests that a combination of sustained increase in cocoa productivity, stable prices, technical services and additional cash crops or enterprises is the best route to achieving a living income. This is an industry-leading approach, as such measures are essential for small scale farmers to undertake investments that are critical in the long-term.

A Co-operative approach

The Fairtrade Premium enables farmers to respond to the challenges they experience and become more entrepreneurial. For example, Julienne Kouadio yah Assoko, a member of Capressa and a single mother of two teenagers, has seen her yields decline in recent years partly due to unpredictable weather and partly due to a shortage of skilled labour as she needs help on her farm. One way she has responded to this challenge is to supplement her income by investing Fairtrade Premium in diversification.

She now grows rubber and vegetables and bought 400 chickens to rear for the local market, all of which are proving profitable. She uses the additional income to pay for her children’s education – one is now attending university.

As a widow, Alphonsine has also had the sole responsibility of providing for her three children and has struggled to manage her money in the past, often having to borrow. She has to get up at 4 am every day to clean and tidy before walking two hours to her farm where she has two hectares of land. Since taking part in farming school, she is making the most of her land and her production has improved since Capressa gave farmers seeds for shade trees. She also now has a savings account with the co-operative and through training sessions has learnt how to budget. She is saving to build her own home and wants to start up a clothing business. She says, “Through the co-operative I believe I can achieve things”

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