Corporate Responsibility, Social Outcomes, and Environmental Implications in the Global Cacao Market

Abstract:

The global cocoa industry currently suffers from interrelated issues of low productivity, farmer poverty, and environmental degradation. This study seeks to evaluate the living income of cocoa farmers and argue for how private companies of varying scales can break these cycles of poverty and improve environmental outcomes. This is a mixed methods study incorporating three waves—in 2009, 2014, and 2018—of a survey assessing hundreds of impact metrics across almost 3,000 Ghanaian cocoa farmers. The study additionally includes farmer focus groups and ethnographies in Ghana, Indonesia, and Central America, and key informant interviews throughout the global cocoa supply chain. This study is original in assessing the implications of private-sector initiatives over a ten-year period and questioning the qualitative driving factors behind these trends. Preliminary findings confirm the challenges faced by cocoa farmers and the urgency for multidimensional solutions that address a diversity of obstacles on and off the cocoa farm. This study is useful for private companies, who are funding a majority of cocoa sustainability programs, to evaluate and improve their programs.