The Living Income Community of Practice, of which the Food Lab is a founding partner, released a report on the Ghana Living Income Benchmark & Analysis of Income Gaps for Cocoa Growing Regions. The study outlines a roadmap to achieve living incomes for cocoa farmers through a credible, third party analysis. Follow these links to the Benchmark Study and the Gap Analysis by the KIT Royal Tropical Institute that compares benchmarks with actual farmer incomes.
“If we were to do it alone as a company, it may not be seen as credible to external partners,” says Ywe Franken, Cargill cocoa sustainability expert. “It will help us track progress for the farmers we work with.”
In July, Stephanie Daniels, Senior Program Director of Agriculture and Development, facilitated a workshop with the leaders of Ghana’s cocoa sector and global chocolate industry to present the initial findings and receive feedback before the report’s release.
The Living Income Community of Practice is an alliance of partners dedicated to the vision of thriving, economically stable, rural communities linked to global food and agricultural supply chains. The goal of this community is to support activities focused on improving smallholder incomes towards living incomes, aiming to enable smallholder farmers to achieve a decent standard of living. This community is a result of a partnership between the the Food Lab, GIZ and the ISEAL Alliance.
The benchmark study was funded by Cargill, Fairtrade International, GIZ, Lindt Cocoa Foundation, Mars and Rainforest Alliance UTZ sector Partnerships Programme.
