Fostering Value Chain Development in the Cocoa Sector

Supporting smallholder farmers encourages profitable cocoa production and also helps reduce poverty in this sector.

Cocoa: a Focus of Swisscontact’s work since 2004

Millions of smallholder cocoa farmers live below the poverty line, even though global demand for cocoa would provide real opportunities for them to increase their incomes substantially from their production. But in order to achieve this, they must be well integrated into the value chain.

Swisscontact helps integrate smallholder farmers into value chains. This opens up new business opportunities and markets.

Cocoa is a globally traded export commodity that involves a long and complex value chain. For the producer countries, cocoa is a pivotal export commodity that plays an important role in the local economy. At the very end of this chain is the chocolate for sale in shops and supermarkets.

Strengthening competitiveness

Swisscontact enables smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs to grasp and take advantage of market and business opportunities in order to increase their income and generate employment.

It is not only smallholder farmers who benefit from sustainable value chain development, but also rural communities.

Swisscontact helps smallholder farmers

expand production,
improve harvest quality,
strengthen organisational abilities
improve their position within value chains,
thereby facilitating access to essential goods and services.

A key success factor is the efficient and cost-effective collaboration between industry, governments, civil society, and donors.

Swisscontact’s Value Chain Analysis Approach for the Cacao Sector

Swisscontact analyses the various steps involved in the production process, from raw material extraction through production and processing of intermediate and final products, all the way to supplying the end consumer. The approach focuses exclusively on specific sectors or subsectors with particular potential for growth.

The analysis identifies and addresses bottlenecks and constraints to more successful SME and farmer participation through specific interventions. Project implementation will eliminate these bottlenecks through specific measures.

A Swiss network for sustainable cocoa

The Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa brings together the players in the Swiss cocoa industry. Members from industry, the public sector, NGOs and research institutes join forces to improve the living conditions of cocoa producers and to conserve natural resources and biodiversity in the countries where cocoa is cultivated.

Swisscontact has contributed to the concept of the Cocoa Platform and continues to represent the concerns of civil society in the Platform.