Sweet successes against bitter reality

Sahr John Moore has also completed the training for sustainable cocoa cultivation: "I used to work in a diamond mine. That was exhausting and dangerous. And I hardly got anything out of it. Since I learned to grow cocoa, my wife and I have been living much, much better," the farmer reports with satisfaction. Around a quarter of the cocoa farms in Sierra Leone are run by women. Khadijahtu Brima is one of them. Together with other women, she sets out in the morning with a sharpened machete over her shoulder to prune the cocoa trees so that they produce the best yield and do not develop fungal diseases. "I learned a lot in the trainings," Khadijahtu Brima says. She speaks quickly and loudly. She is happy, and she wants everyone to hear it. "We now harvest more and better cocoa and get a fair price for it. This has also changed our relationship with our men. They now respect us for what we do," says the president of the cocoa farmers' association breathlessly. Then she takes a breath - and smiles.

Brima Samuel Bangura, deputy agricultural officer of the Kono district, can only confirm this. Since Welthungerhilfe began supporting farming families in sustainable cocoa cultivation, both quantity and quality have increased significantly. Thanks to a newly introduced digitalized system, more and more cocoa beans can now be traced back to the plantation. Knowing exactly where the cocoa comes from is also extremely important for Sergio Codonyer. The Spaniard worked for an international beverage manufacturer in West Africa for seven years, eventually becoming responsible for Sierra Leone and twelve other countries. Then he decided to become a social entrepreneur, i.e. an entrepreneur with a social cause. He founded the company Organic Africa Chocolate and now plans to build a chocolate factory in Sierra Leone to produce one of the best organic chocolates in the world for export to Europe and the USA.

Up to now, cocoa from Sierra Leone has been exported exclusively unprocessed. A large part of the profit is made in the Global North, the Global South remains a cheap supplier of raw materials and thus at the mercy of the strongly fluctuating world market prices. Organic Africa Chocolate wants to change this and produce its exclusive chocolate entirely in Sierra Leone, thus extending the value chain locally and creating well-paid jobs. The factory is scheduled to begin operations this year. "For the cocoa farmers, it means a great opportunity that their goods will now be reliably purchased. Welthungerhilfe acts as an intermediary here, we advise on contracts, ensure that the farming families are paid fairly and, conversely, through our work with the smallholders, ensure that the producer can rely on the quality of the cocoa," explains Manfred Bischofberger, country director of Welthungerhilfe in Sierra Leone.

Initially, the 52-gram bar of fine chocolate is to be sold in Spain, and later also in the USA and other European countries for around two euros. Germany is to play a very special role in this, after all it is the largest market for fairly traded organic products. "The potential is huge. At some point, two million farmers in West Africa should be working for Organic Africa Chocolate," says Codonyer, who has been thinking big since his last job at the latest.