Why the African cocoa cartel is a bad idea
An obsession with cocoa prices overlooks better ways to help the poor
Big commodity buyers do not usually pay their suppliers to produce something that they will never buy. Yet Nestlé, one of the world’s biggest chocolate-makers, is paying 10,000 cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast to do exactly that. Among them is Tanoh Kouadio, a 45-year-old cocoa farmer whom Nestlé will pay about 67,000 west African francs ($106) to raise chickens.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Chocolate wars”
Middle East & Africa November 26th 2022
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