By: Mohamed M. Sesay
Cocoa remains a valuable cash crop and major foreign exchange earner among other agricultural commodity exports of the West African economy. The cocoa tree, known as Theobroma Cacao, belongs to the stericuliniacea family.
Cocoa is believed to have had its gene centre in the upper Amazon region of South America from where it spread to different parts of the world.
Traditionally, cocoa has been one of Sierra Leone’s most important export products. However, most farmers were forced to leave their villages during the civil war, and their fields lay fallow for many years. When the rebels and soldiers finally made peace and the cocoa farmers returned to their villages, they found only destruction: many of their houses had been burnt to the ground, and their fields lay in ruins.
In West Africa, and Sierra Leone, in particular, agriculture continues to play a predominant role in the provision of food, raw material for industries, employment for the majority and foreign earnings used in financing development activities. Industrial tree crops, notably cocoa, coffee, oil palm, and rubber have dominated agricultural export. Among the perennial tree crops, the plant is of particular interest for some parts of West Africa and the global chocolate industry.
In Sierra Leone, cocoa is one of the country’s most important export crops and the traditional variety is harvested from June to January, with most of the harvest done at the end of the rainy season in August and September. Sierra Leone’s cocoa has historically received a premium for its special flavour, like Ghana and Ivory Coast, by similarly fermenting its beans traditionally. Cocoa is predominantly cultivated in the Eastern part of Sierra Leone, particularly in Kenema and Kailahun districts.
According to the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Company SLPMC, cocoa is a plant that only grows within 10° of the equator, which limits its cultivation area to Central Africa, South & Middle America and Southeast Asia. 70% of the world’s raw cocoa is produced in West and Central Africa, making it the key cash crop in this area. The Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon combined have a 98% share of the production in this part of the world.
The Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Company principally performs a volume assembly function and buys from producers and other traders. The company usually represents an international buyer and operates in several producing districts across the country. The passion for high quality and traceability makes SLPMC cocoa beans ideal for producing fine chocolate and other cocoa products.
In 2015, one of the cocoa investment companies, Trading Organic Company, started exploring opportunities for organic cocoa in Sierra Leone. Currently, they have their own cocoa sourcing company in the country and are working with over 35,000 organic certified cocoa farmers.
One cannot shy from the reality that Sierra Leone has over the years faced many challenges. The civil war followed by the Ebola crisis and now the corona virus pandemic has caused the cocoa market to virtually collapse, leaving many cocoa farmers with difficult access to the world market.
Trading Organic Company disclosed to A-Z Africa Magazine that the company has started working with farmers to set up an organically certified cocoa sourcing project. The company configures a local control system with dedicated quality coordinators and has also invested in training and registration for farmers. Such laudable mechanisms paved the way for the company to successfully pass the Organic Audit and started exporting Organic Cocoa to the world.
With its organic cocoa production in full swing, Trading Organic Company’s activities in Sierra Leone are growing rapidly. They have their sourcing and exporting office in Kenema and have trained a team of quality coordinators who ensure optimum quality. Each bag of cocoa beans is registered so they can be traced back to their respective farmers and then transported by their truck drivers to their warehouse in Kenema.
As the Cocoa lands in their Kenema Office, the team checks the quality of the cocoa beans, before preparing the bags for export. The cocoa beans will now be exported to their organic cocoa processing facility in the Netherlands, the Crown of Holland, where they are processed into cocoa liquor, butter and powder.
Trading Organic Company’s cocoa project in Sierra Leone is creating new opportunities for cocoa farmers. The farmers now have access to the world market and they receive an organic premium for their cocoa. For the future, they have assured that they are planning to expand their program for farmer training, which aims to help farmers to increase their productivity and income. In November 2018, Trading Organic Company launched a Farmer Field School project. This project is now helping farmers to improve their yields of cocoa and support farmers to grow food crops next to their cocoa.
Consequently, efforts of the Sierra Leone Produce Monitoring Board to improve the cocoa sector in Sierra Leone have received global recognition during the International Cocoa Awards organized by the Cocoa of Excellence Programme.
On October 30 2019, during an exclusive evening ceremony attended by over 500 cocoa and chocolate professionals, the winners of the 50 Best Cocoa were celebrated at the Salon du Chocolate in Paris, France. This ceremony show cases the international spotlight on the work of cocoa producing countries and the farmers they support and work with, and the diversity of cocoa around the world.
According to Morlai Bangura of the Produce Monitoring Board (PMB), every two years the Cocoa of Excellence Programme, spearheaded by Bio-diversity International (now the Alliance of Bio-diversity International and Salon du Chocolate), recognizes the quality, flavor and diversity of cocoa from different cocoa producing countries from every continent of the world. Cocoa diversity is vital for production, as it provides different flavors, resistance to pests and diseases, and resilience to climate change. Providing incentives for safeguarding cocoa diversity to national organizations like PMB ensures a portfolio of options for the development of the cocoa sector.
It is an undisputed truth that most, if not all, of the families in cocoa farming in Sierra Leone live in abject poverty. Poverty is a very complex and multifaceted problem in Sierra Leone’s cocoa farming communities. About two-third of cocoa farmers’ income is generated from cocoa cultivation. It is a popular belief that in West Africa and Sierra Leone, in particular, self-employed farmers engage in small scale farms of less than five to ten hectares. Among the problem faced by cocoa farmers are high production costs, lack of access to financial services, low incomes and weak economic resilience with the tremendous struggle to meet their basic needs.
In most parts of Africa, cocoa cultivation is challenged by deforestation, biodiversity, poor farm management and soil degradation. Deforestation often leads to a loss of biodiversity and contributes to climate change. Cocoa cultivation is increasingly threatened by climate change.
The crop becomes unsuitable for healthy growth as extreme weather conditions hit the soil.
Cocoa farming is very capital intensive; which explains why there has not been huge cocoa farming in Sierra Leone. On a whole, all those involved in cocoa farming in Sierra Leone are indeed faced with the abject poverty their cocoa farming has not salvaged. Sierra Leonean farmers in cocoa cultivation will only start to yield good dividends if and when chocolate manufacturing factories are in the country.
