IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/afe/journl/v15y2013i1p121-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Producers to Export Markets: The Case of the Cocoa Value Chain in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Belen Roldan
  • Ingrid Fromm
  • Robert Aidoo

Abstract

For many smallholders, agriculture is the main source of income, understanding how value chains work can derive many benefits to increase productivity and therefore farmers' income. Many different stakeholders around the world are involved in the cocoa value chain, which is part of a billion-dollar chocolate industry. Cocoa farming in many developing countries is the main source of income for households. West Africa is the most important cocoa-producing area worldwide, accounting for 70 percent of the total production. In Ghana, small-scale farmers, with plantations of no more than 4 hectares, are responsible for most of the national production. This investigation sought to determine if the interactions of these farmers with different local and international stakeholders were improving their situation. The study took place in two main cocoa producer regions in Ghana, Brong Ahafo and Western. Three hundred small scale farmers in 20 different villages were interviewed. Interviews of different key stakeholders in Ghana, such as COCOBOD and in Switzerland, Felchlin AG, Chocolats Halba and Chocosuisse were conducted. This study focused on identifying the relationships, support, benefits and/or problems between stakeholders (national and international) and small scale farmers. On the other hand, the issue of contract farming and its impact on cocoa farmers in Ghana was analyzed. The results indicate that small scale farmers have little or no contact with stakeholders especially with chocolate manufacturers, the lack of farming contracts is high in oth regions and if farmers work under contract there is little or no information about contracting terms and conditions. Awareness of sustainable production or certifications to motivate better producer price among farmers is also missing. Finally, a participatory value chain analysis is proposed in order to improve relationships between farmers and stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Belen Roldan & Ingrid Fromm & Robert Aidoo, 2013. "From Producers to Export Markets: The Case of the Cocoa Value Chain in Ghana," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 15(2), pages 121-138.
  • Handle: RePEc:afe:journl:v:15:y:2013:i:1:p:121-138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afeawpapers.org/RePEc/afe/afe-journl/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/JAD_vol15_fall_ch5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arias, Ricardo Cortéz & Fromm, Ingrid, 2019. "From Cocoa Producers to Chocolatiers? Developing an Entrepreneurial Model for Small‐scale Producers in Honduras," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 10(1), January.
    2. Sebastián Escobar & Margareth Santander & Pilar Useche & Carlos Contreras & Jader Rodríguez, 2020. "Aligning Strategic Objectives with Research and Development Activities in a Soft Commodity Sector: A Technological Plan for Colombian Cocoa Producers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-32, April.
    3. Bellemare, Marc F. & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2018. "Does contract farming improve welfare? A review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 259-271.
    4. Oberlack, Christoph & Blare, Trent & Zambrino, Luca & Bruelisauer, Samuel & Solar, Jimena & Villar, Gesabel & Thomas, Evert & Ramírez, Marleni, 2023. "With and beyond sustainability certification: Exploring inclusive business and solidarity economy strategies in Peru and Switzerland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    5. Eberhard, Erich K. & Hicks, Jessica & Simon, Adam C. & Arbic, Brian K., 2022. "Livelihood considerations in land-use decision-making: Cocoa and mining in Ghana," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    6. Emmanuel Ahoa & Ayalew Kassahun & Bedir Tekinerdogan & Cor Verdouw, 2021. "Analyzing and Designing Business Processes in the Ghana Cocoa Supply Chain for Supporting Inclusiveness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-29, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Value chain; cocoa; commodities; farming; small scale farmers; producer price; contract farming; Ghana;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afe:journl:v:15:y:2013:i:1:p:121-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Nsiah (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.