The suffering of cocoa farmers across Africa continues to expose the deep injustice that defines the global chocolate trade. In many cocoa-producing areas, including the Southern Cameroons, widely known as Ambazonia, farmers are facing increasing hardship despite the growing global appetite for chocolate. The bulk of the world’s cocoa production occurs in neighbouring Ghana and Ivory Coast, where the situation is similar.
Last year, cocoa prices briefly surged to more than 10,000 dollars per tonne on international markets. For many farmers across the cocoa belt of West Africa, including those cultivating cocoa in parts of Ambazonia, this sudden rise created hope that at least the growers who labour daily on their farms would begin to enjoy some benefits from the global chocolate industry. However, the excitement did not last long. Prices have since dropped sharply, and reports from farming communities indicate that some farmers are now struggling even to sell their harvested beans.
Ghana and Ivory Coast together produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply. Yet the farmers who plant, maintain, and harvest the crops receive only a tiny portion of the wealth generated by the global chocolate market. The massive profits are largely captured by powerful multinational chocolate companies and international commodity traders.
Both the Ghanaian and Ivorian governments control the farmgate price for cocoa each season. The policy is meant to shield farmers from extreme fluctuations in the international market. While this system provides a certain level of stability, it also prevents farmers from taking advantage of rising global cocoa prices. As a result, the farmers who actually produce the beans remain trapped at the bottom of the value chain.
Across the cocoa-growing belt of West Africa, including communities bordering the Southern Cameroons, millions of farmers continue to struggle under a system they have little power to influence. Meanwhile, the multi-billion-dollar chocolate industry continues to expand and reap enormous profits from its labour.
Facing declining income and uncertainty, some cocoa farmers are beginning to abandon the crop entirely. Others are shifting to different agricultural activities that promise better returns. In Ghana, a growing number of farmers have even turned to small-scale gold mining, as cocoa farming becomes increasingly unreliable as a source of livelihood.
The problems are further worsened by ageing cocoa plantations, persistent plant diseases and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns driven by climate change. These factors are reducing productivity across the region. At the same time, younger generations in cocoa-growing communities are showing less interest in continuing the work, citing low income and an uncertain future.
In recent years, Ghana and Ivory Coast have attempted to coordinate policies aimed at securing better prices for cocoa farmers. However, the current crisis once again reveals the deep structural imbalance that defines the global cocoa trade.
While chocolate consumption continues to rise around the world, the farmers who produce the essential raw beans remain among the poorest participants in the entire supply chain. For many growers across the region, including those in cocoa-producing communities of the Southern Cameroons, the promise of prosperity from cocoa farming remains painfully out of reach.
By Lucas Muma l BaretaNews
