top of page

Our Progress

As of December 9, 2014

We experienced many setbacks and barriers throughout the project, however in keeping with the spirit of the class and the project, identifying such barriers is a step forward for the project. For the next set of students hoping to continue this project in a future quarter of the Development class, we will list some of the barriers we faced and proposed solutions to such barriers.

 

  • The issue of government in both Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire:

The Ghanaian government and then Cote d’Ivoire government are very different. From Tom we learned that the Ghanaian government is much like ours in that business is regulated and creating a business to make money is carefully controlled. However, in that the way for applying a business license is very similar to how it is in United Stated. Following the plan here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/ghana/starting-a-business one CAN theoretically empower the Ghanaian people to sell their own chocolate. Using Tom’s company that allows the Ghanaian people to create their own chocolate, and creating a business to sell this chocolate within the country rather than as an export commodity would be very empowering for the cocoa farmers in Africa. We also learned from Tom that the Cote d’Ivoire is quite a bit less regulated: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/c%C3%B4te-divoire/starting-a-business However, Tom seems to have a grasp on his prospect in Cote d’Ivoire, so starting a business there has not been an issue for him.

 

  • The issue of the African economy, and the wealth of the common farmer.

We learned from Tom as well that the price point of the chocolate is also a large issue. Most African cocoa farmers and children have a limited amount of pocket money, and such prices should be adjusted to meet these expectations. Culturally, chocolate is seen as a luxury good as prices would be too expensive to buy it on a regular basis in the case of a large bar of chocolate. However, to combat this Tom has devised specific price points and bar/disc sizes that will make the price more efficient of a seller. The way he devised this is that disks, much smaller and thinner than normal bars, are sold at a lower price point to encourage children with pocket change to spend their money on chocolate. Larger bars would be aimed at adults and would sell at a higher price point. A good suggestion on expanding such a system would be to create a way to market to the two audiences by gearing the wrapping and foil of the disks to be more attractive to children, and to make the bars more refined and mature for adults.

 

  • The issue of child slavery in cocoa production.

Through several online resources we learned that child slavery is still a large issue in cocoa farming. Children are routinely used for labor, sometimes against their will, in terrible conditions. Working under the assumption that empowering the chocolate farmers to sell their own products will allow them to wean off slave labor, Tom’s Project Hope and Fairness seems like a good way to address these problems. However, in the larger scheme of things, it is up to the chocolate industry to address these problems. As such, the best solution that we could find to address this problem is to buy fair trade chocolate. Fair trade certification requires fair work to remain certified, and addresses the issue of buying chocolates in the US.

 

  • Communication issues and difficulties reaching Africa

Many of our interactions with potential NGOs and people in Africa is spoiled by the fact that communication with the farmers is nigh impossible. Even when having a middleman to communicate with, the lack of technology to reach them makes it a difficult project to work. Cell phone technology is easiest, however reaching them by phone can be expensive for both the caller and receiver. Email proved to be slow and inefficient, however this could be a reflection of the people we tried to contact more than anything. Finding consistent and dependable contacts is difficult, however the biggest loss in the project is being unable to talk to chocolate farmers or the Ghanaians in general.

 

  • The issue of funding, volunteers, and resources

The issue of chocolate farmers isn’t as well-publicized as other causes, so Tom told us of his troubles in trying to raise funds as capital to help his cause. Tom has participated in Art After Dark and other fundraisers and awareness events to spread the word. People have approached him and told him they love what he’s doing, but very few people contact him about donating or getting involved. Gearing events specifically towards college students may be a more effective way to get volunteers. However, getting people to go to Africa is much more difficult than going to a more exotic place. A companionship with a study-abroad or Peace Corps project might bring more young volunteers to aid this cause.

 

Despite all of this, Tom is working on opening a cocoa study center in Cameroon.

In addition to this cocoa center, Tom is also looking for donations to buy specific supplies for villages he is currently working in. In Pezoan, a cocoa butter manufacturer is needed. In Zereguhe, a motorcycle would be helpful in bringing chocolate to trading places. Currently, the villages have to pay someone else to drive their chocolate to market, which severely affects their income. Tom estimates that the cost of buying, shipping, and setting up the cocoa butter manufacturer will be around $10,000 and the motorcycle around $2,000.

 

As of November 1, 2014

        We are no longer focused on creating an instruction manual for the chocolate-making process. We had another meeting with Dr. Neuhaus and it came to light that remembering the process was not where the problems lie. The chocolate making operation on the Ivory Coast has been going relatively smoothly while the operation in Ghana has been suffering. One of the problems in Ghana is that the cocoa farmers are currently only able to sell to other farmers in the area, but farmers often do not have the funds available to purchase chocolate. The Ghanian cocoa farmers would be a lot more successful if they could sell their chocolate at the local gas station that serves as a crossroads between major cities or at other tourist locations. To a tourist, paying one dollar for a hand-crafted African chocolate bar is next to nothing. The reason that the Ghanian cocoa farmers are unable to sell at these locations is that the Ghanian government requires that these people have a type of “business license” to be able to sell and not be reprimanded by the government. Dr. Neuhaus gave us the contact information of Shawn at ProWorld: an organization that brings students to Ghana to study abroad and do internships while helping the developing world. Unfortunately, the email that he gave us was defunct and when we looked on the ProWorld website, her email was also not working. We sent an email to the general inbox for the Ghana office of ProWorld and we are waiting to hear back. We hope that Shawn can give us some information on how the policies with obtaining a business license in Ghana work and what we can do (if anything) to expedite this process. The other problem that has been encountered in Ghana and the Ivory Coast is that the farmers’ business and accounting knowledge does not exist. They do not know how to balance accounts or to see how much of a profit they made after taking out the money that they spent on raw materials. If we want to pursue this avenue, we will have to make contact with some accounting professional who would want to go into Ghana to teach accounting basics to these cocoa farmers.

 

        Tom connected us with Marcia who is currently in Cameroon working with the organization Plan International. Plan International is interested in making sure children's rights are protected and to help get them out of poverty. The organization has 8 core areas to work on: education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic safety, emergencies, child participation, and sexual health (including HIV). She has been working with different women's groups and the Engaging Men's/Boy's Club in Wum Health District to see if they are interested in chocolate production. She has met with the Divisional Delegate for MINPROFF (Ministry of Women’s Empowerment & the Family), the President of Friends’ Kids (local NGO for youth welfare), and Precious Sisters (support group for women living with HIV) to determine how many communities are interested in establishing an income-generating activity making chocolate. She said there are currently 7 groups in 4 different health areas that are interested, and the numbers seem to be growing.

        She also explained that there are five areas in the Wum Health District that grow cocoa and that many of the Engaging Men's Club members are actually cocoa farmers. She said they were very enthusiastic about being able to process their own cocoa instead of selling it and making little profit.

        Since she is in direct contact with cocoa farmers, we gave her some questions for them. She said she will interview as many cocoa farmers as she can and get back to us. Unfortunately, she said we'd hear back from her during the 3rd or 4th week of November, which is kinda late in the quarter, but we can work with it.

        The questions we have for the cocoa farmers include:What are their biggest struggles throughout the day? What are any problems they consistently have with farming and processing cocoa? What process happens after the cocoa is farmed? Who do they sell to? Who is doing the majority of the labor?

        Marcia is excited to get this project going and we hope to work with her and Dr. Neuhaus to bring another chocolate making operation to Cameroon. Also, because the main goal of plan is to protect children, there is no fear of them being exploited to make this chocolate and fits in well with Tom's vision.

 

As of October 4, 2014

  • Try to help find more cost-effective ways of sourcing the ingredients for chocolate making. Many of the ingredients that are needed for chocolate are being bought in small quantities instead of in bulk for a cheaper price. A goal of ours would be to help these chocolatiers form partnerships with other local vendors to see if it would be possible to buy larger quantities for less if they were consistent customers.

  • Another goal of ours is to learn directly from Dr. Neuhaus about the exact process he uses to make chocolate while in Africa. We would like to ultimately make a "Chocolate for Dummies" type of book that could then be translated for the people in Africa. Because none of us have much experience in making chocolate, the instructions that we provide would be more detailed and would include things that Dr. Neuhaus may not have mentioned because of his familiarity with chocolate. We would also create a picture guide of all of the equipment involved in chocolate making. This manual will serve as a good reference for when Dr. Neuhaus is not in Africa and something is forgotten.

bottom of page