BUSINESS

The true cost of cocoa

A Belgian chocolate company is pioneering sustainable farming in Ivory Coast

✶By Sarah Crew

Belgium has long enjoyed a reputation for chocolate, from luxury brands with global recognition to artisan confectioners who never tire of dreaming up new flavours. But behind the sweet finished product is a bitter story of poverty. And nowhere is this truer than in the West African countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana, which between them produce two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.

Here, cocoa farmers’ enduring economic hardship results in the immoral and dangerous practice of child labour. At its root is the inequality between the price paid for cocoa beans and the profits made by manufacturers and retailers. That’s why Belgian chocolate maker Thierry Noesen is pioneering a ground-breaking €2 million project in Ivory Coast that will serve as a bridge between farmers and chocolate companies. The KimVas enterprise centres on building a cocoa processing plant that aims “to create a positive global impact for the local population as well as for the planet”. The bean-to-bar initiative is a collaboration between Noesen’s company, Belvas, and Ivory Coast’s cocoa cooperative union, Ecookim, as well as public and private partners including Belgium’s philanthropic King Baudouin Foundation (KBF).

Belvas, based in the Hainaut town of Ghislenghien, is the European leader in fair-trade and organic chocolate; the company has won international awards for its sustainable practices. Founder and director Noesen has long been on a mission to bring about change in his industry. “When I bought a small chocolate factory in 2005, I immediately changed everything to fair-trade, I didn’t even ask the customers,” he recalls.

Over the past 15 years, Noesen has become even more aware of the plight of cocoa farmers and their families. When Belvas gained organic certification, he sourced cocoa from Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. “These countries were ahead of the rest of the world in going organic and they got

“If the whole industry was fair-trade and I disappeared, that would be a good thing”

Belvas director Thierry Noesen in Daloa, Ivory Coast

“The major groups have their own programmes, but they’re not about helping the farmer”

good prices for their products,” he says. Child labour was not a serious issue in the region, “because as soon as parents have enough money, they know it’s better that their children go to school.”

After participating in various cooperatives in Latin America, he turned his focus to Ivory Coast, which, along with neighbouring Ghana, has the highest rates of child labour. “We knew that the real way to do something was create a proper revenue,” he says. For the past two years, Belvas has been involved in Direct Cocoa, a collaborative project with farmers that targets child labour, crop diversification, higher premium organic production and educational programmes that include empowering local women.

To further reduce poverty, Noesen recognised the need for the country to be involved in the more lucrative parts of the industry. “If you really want to give farmers a better price, then do some steps of the cocoa process over there for real added value,” he says. “This means not just selling the cocoa bean, but cleaning, drying, roasting, to get what we call cocoa mass, which is a paste that comes out of cocoa.” To meet the challenge of improving the global image of Ivory Coast chocolate, beans are extra roasted to produce a more robust flavour. country. The site has the advantage of being located a few hours from a city with a university agronomy department that’s keen to be involved in the project. Machinery for the plant was bought from a chocolate factory in Germany that closed last year, while a pre-fab building is under construction in Belgium and is due to be shipped this summer.

Building a processing plant has important environmental advantages as well as an economic impact, Noesen says. “It’s a great model for the planet, as shipping cocoa mass halves the volume to be transported compared to shipping beans. When you process beans, you lose 25% of the volume in water, and the peel on the bean can be used as a natural compost in the fields.” Cocoa mass also doesn’t require 

chemical pesticides during transport unlike beans, which have to be treated to avoid insect infestation.

But the Covid-19 pandemic has put pressure on cocoa farmers by reducing global demand for chocolate through the enforced closure of airport outlets, specialist boutiques and restaurants. Since 1 April, the price for the raw material has dropped by 25%. Noesen: “Of course, Belvas keeps its guaranteed price to our partner farmers at the old level, so their revenue is safe. But we are very angry about this market evolution. The extreme poverty in which the cocoa farmers are living seems not to be a driver within the cocoa industry to keep the prices at fair levels.”

By paying a premium, Belvas has already contributed €400,000 in additional revenue for farmers. “If the whole industry was fair-trade and I disappeared, that would be a good thing,” he says. The demand for fair-trade products is increasing, which Noesen sees as a positive consumer-driven trend – but he is critical of the greenwashing prevalent in the industry. “There are new labels arriving on the market that don’t offer farmers even half the value of fair-trade,” he points out. “The major

“As soon as parents have enough money, they know it’s better that their children go to school”

industrial groups have their own programmes, but they’re not about helping the farmer.”

Aware now more than ever of the complexities of the global cocoa industry, Noesen is writing a book about his work and experience amid his ongoing commitment to “changing the chocolate world, one bite at a time”. It’s a sentiment reflected in the new project’s name. Belvas (“Belgium” plus “Value Added for the South”) is combined with Kim, inspired by the word for “together” in the dialect of the Senufo language group spoken in Ivory Coast. “I’m sure anyone else would do the same in my situation when you understand how much impact you can have over there,” he says.

This mission is one reason why KimVas was awarded a grant of €200,000 by the KBF as part of its Business Partnerships Facility, a five-year, €12 million programme launched in 2019 and financed by the Belgian government’s directorate-general for development cooperation. The aim is to encourage private business initiatives with a strong social impact to achieve one or more of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries in the South.

“Truly committed local companies like Ecookim are among African partners the foundation is keen to work with,” a KBF spokesperson says. “They are taking more and more responsibility and making real decisions in the management of their resources, their territories and the communities living there.” The foundation maintains oversight of BPF projects like KimVas, providing and paying for technical support if necessary. In 2020, 24% of the €12.5 million in grants it provided in total to developing countries went on stimulating local entrepreneurship.