True price for consumers: cocoa
Hard to resist and easy to love. Have you ever considered where the cocoa beans for the chocolate bar you eat is from?
What’s the true price and/or true costs of the chocolate you chose to eat?
Cocoa: Tony’s Chocolonely Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana
The true cost of cocoa for Tony’s farms in 2017 is €4,52, compared to the Tony’s farms in 2013 which has a true cost of €9,91. Tony’s Chocolonely is known for its ambition to make the global chocolate chain 100% slave-free with the hope to transform the sector.
In addition to a comparison of Tony’s farms in 2013 and 2017, True Price calculated sector benchmarks for 2013 and 2017 to illustrate how Tony’s true costs fall below the benchmark.
- Location: Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
- Year: 2018
- Description: True Price and Tony’s have a multi-year collaboration. In 2013, True Price carried out an analysis for Tony’s in which the social and environmental costs of a conventional chocolate bar and a Tony’s chocolate bar were calculated. This was a defining moment for Tony’s, as they realized that much work was still to do. To show that both Tony’s and the sector have developed towards the aim of slave-free chocolate updated results in a follow-up study have been published on November 6, 2018.
Cocoa: IDH Ivory Coast
The true price of a kilo of certified cocoa beans is €6,30, compared to conventional cocoa which has a true price of €7,12.
- Location: Côte d’Ivoire
- Year: 2016
- Description: True Price executed an extensive impact measurement and valuation project for cocoa in the Ivory Coast, a value chain where IDH executes sustainability programs. The study compared the social and environmental costs of conventional vs. certified production. The study attributed impacts on farm and retail level.
Cocoa: Fairtrade Ivory Coast
The analysis shows that only 42% of farmers earn above the extreme poverty line, and only 23% above the poverty line. See the below report for full details.
- Location: Côte d’Ivoire
- Year: 2018
- Description: True Price executed their farmer household income method to data from over 3000 farmers. The analysis included insights in the distribution of farmer household income, the profitability of cocoa and the value added. These results were compared to the living income benchmark. Moreover, True Price completed a threshold analysis, in which we analysed under which conditions Fairtrade can help their farmers to earn above the poverty line – or even help them make a living income.
