Chocolates, one of the most loved treats, commercialized in American pop culture as one of the remedies to a broken heart, right next to ice cream. The commercial machine has for years sold this product, till it became a $116.61 billion industry (numbers vary depending on where you look, but it is generally within the $100 billion mark), at least that was its market size value by 2022, and expected to reach $156.74 billion in 2030.
There is an age-old saying that there are no emotions or sentiments in business, and while that may be true; it can at least be fair. Ghana is the highest producer of cocoa, alongside Ivory Coast but earns less than 6% from the $100+ billion industry. Farmers earn about $2 or less a day, especially if they don't grow organic cocoa, that is if they use pesticides or have small plots of land for farming because the foreign countries they export to want a certain grade of pure cocoa that they then use to produce chocolate. The lands are also being overused, keeping in mind this, farming and export trade started in about 1876, as they were colonized by the British, till 2019 when Ghana and Ivory coast came together to address the poverty of cocoa farmers, introducing a fixed price system for cocoa.
A $400 premium was added to every ton of cocoa exported, the money going straight to the farmers, this was named Living Income Differential (LID). It may seem like a lot, but compared to the billions made by the big corporations, it was nothing, especially if you factor in the loss for the years in their trade relationship.
Well until 2020, the president of Ghana; Nana Akufo-Addo, at a press conference announced a shift from Ghana processing just 30% of their cocoa and shipping out 70%. He said that they would be processing more of this cocoa themselves at least about 50% of it, even more daring, he said this at a press conference in Switzerland with the top Swiss ministers present, Switzerland being Ghana's biggest customer. Ghana had decided that the era of foreign countries just taking the raw materials without really giving back value to Ghana was over, they wanted to produce their chocolate and get a piece of the profits for themselves, boosting their economy with this potential source of national revenue.
So fast-forward to a few years later, there arose issues in illegal mining, and chemicals entering their water, also affecting the cocoa produced, amongst other issues, some countries like Japan were not pleased as they were not meeting with the agreed upon standard. The European Union then threatens them with sanctions demanding they become more environmentally friendly or face a ban.
In a bid to find the solution to the issue, Ghana asks how they can meet up to said standards, and the European Union asked them to purchase carbon credits. For those who don't know what Carbon credits are, it is a permit you pay for, because your company is producing carbon and other harmful substance that poisons the atmosphere which furthers global warming and the greenhouse effect, your money is then used for projects that reduce these harmful effects... more or less, or paying someone not to pollute.
So in summary, with the already lopsided deal they are trying to get better negotiations for, they are still being asked to pay the same European Union not to pollute, so they can ignore Ghana not being environmentally friendly, which cancels out measures to improve cocoa farmers' incomes, taking them back to where they began. Ghana and Ivory Coast ignored the meeting of the World's cocoa foundation in Brussels, to show their displeasure while hiring experts in the field and began manufacturing their chocolate.
As fate would have it, there is already a production of synthetic chocolates, which is working to remove the cocoa from the equation. Coincidence? I highly doubt it.
While I applaud technological advancement, I can not help but notice a pattern. Africa, like in the days of colonization is a source of resource extraction, then they decided to push for more and end up getting outplayed, all while they use the moral high ground to sell their movement in a new direction. In this case, the need for this new form of chocolate; protecting the environment, fighting child labor, etc. It is hard not to look at it as not just another marketing strategy to take away power or leverage from Ghana while pushing this new product that can cut out Ghana from a seat at the table, while they continue their revenue flow, if not increasing it, as the resources needed for this product is more readily available. Ghana could be left holding the bag, valuable leveraging power reduced in a move that could be likened to one out of the Game of Thrones series.
I believe Ghana should be applauded, if for nothing else, for realizing what they had and making an effort to get better out of the deal, Africa as a whole should wake up and realize that they are trading gold for sand. They could use their raw minerals to manufacture finished products rather than exporting and then paying for the finished products at whatever price they set for it.
I also hope Ghana does not completely lose out, and they actually fix the issues associated with the illegal mining.
GHANA VS THE EUROPEAN UNION
By
Oluseyi Vandy