Emergency Productivity Boost (EPB) In the context of growing pressures on farmers, however, we recognised that additional resources were urgently needed to address the impact of climate shocks on productivity. The need for extra resources became particularly apparent after production fell by an unprecedented 20% in Côte d’Ivoire and 11% in Ghana between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 cocoa seasons. 69 Accordingly, we also paid the EPB to 15 partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire this year. Developed in July 2024 by Tony’s Open Chain and its partner cooperatives, the EPB added a further €50 per metric ton to the price of cocoa for the main crop season in Côte d’Ivoire, recognising the need to continue investing in times of need. The EPB was designed to provide farmers with cash support to enable them to invest in their farms’ resilience. Following a consultation with the 15 partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire, we reached an agreement to distribute the EPB funds between farmers and cooperatives, with 80% going directly to cocoa farmers (in cash) and 20% invested in productivity-related activities by the cooperatives.
2. Investments in productivity via partner cooperatives: €237,210 went to partner cooperatives for productivity investments. Each partner cooperative presented an allocation plan, which was finalised in consultation with Tony’s Open Chain. The amount funded a wide range of activities, including: • Set-up and training of 76 labour brigades. • Equipping labour brigades with essential tools such as machetes, scythes and pruning saws, as well as protective boots and gear, and first-aid kits to improve safety for workers. • Procurement and set-up of monitoring tools to enable reporting on labour brigade activities and investments (e.g., via smartphones and computers). • Subsidising services for 1,664 farmers, making essential pruning and weeding services more affordable and accessible for farmers. • Other activities, including composting initiatives, planting shade trees and new cocoa trees, and community development projects. The implementation of the EPB provided several valuable insights. First, we learned that direct, per-farmer, rather than solely volume-based payments for cocoa form a strong complementary approach to enable farmers to carry out productivity-related improvements in time. As part of our thorough traceability process, several supply chain actors need to check and confirm all delivered cocoa volumes. Payments can only be made once these volumes have been validated throughout the chain. Given that the best time for farming activities is actually April to July whereas not all cocoa deliveries and payments are in by that time, an earlier season productivity investment would provide a more optimal planning and implementation of farm investments. Second, the process of engaging with partner cooperatives and farmers on the topic of productivity further highlighted the need for a longer-term approach. This directly informed the development of our evolved productivity programme.
A total of €1,123,273 was paid, averaging around €74,885 per partner cooperative. This covered:
1. Additional cash payments for cocoa farmers: €886,064 was paid by partner cooperatives to the 27,314 Ivoirian cocoa farmers who delivered to Tony’s Open Chain in 2024/25. They were encouraged to use the amount to invest in interventions that would enhance the productivity of their farms. However, we also expect that some will have used the funds to cover other household needs. A farmer survey will be carried out in early 2026 to gather insights into how these funds were spent. Based on our understanding of typical spending habits, we expect that the money will have been invested in a combination of farm production and household costs, including hiring labour for farm activities and inputs, as well as costs related to education, healthcare or transport. We will report on these findings next year.
69. Glauber, J.W., and Mamun, A. “Global cocoa market sees steep price rise amid supply shortfall”, IFPRI Blog, April 2024.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
Living income
Climate, environment & productivity
Human rights
Governance & finances
Interesting appendices
Scaling for change
Introduction
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