KUAPA KOKOO
In 1993 the Ghanaian government, which until then had total control of the country’s cocoa trade, freed up the internal market so local companies could buy cocoa from farmers. At that time Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative (which means “Good Cocoa Farmer Company in Twi the local language) was set up, the co-op members were all cocoa famers, it was to collect and buy the cocoa directly from the members for their benefit.
Kuapa Kokoo ensures the farmers are not cheated, the scales they use are accurate, they train members to process, bag and weight the cocoa and the famers get a cash bonus for every sack of cocoa they sell.
45,000 cocoa farmers are now members of Kuapa Kokoo which is a democratically run co-op with all the officials elected by the farmers.? They sell about 1000 tons of their cocoa as Fairtrade for which they receive a guaranteed price and a premium of US$150 per ton and the rest of the cocoa the farmers produce is sold onto the commercial market. Kuapa invests the Fairtrade premiums in community projects such as training, water wells and school education. There are other benefits for example they buy farm tools such as machetes in bulk at a cheaper price and sell them to the farmers who benefit from the lower price.
In 1998 the Divine Chocolate company was set up and Kuapa Kokoo owns a share of the company, two farmers are members of the Divine Board, and they share in Divine’s profits. |
