Quality Improvement
Since adopting good agricultural practices under the Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, a cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire has transformed the overall quality of its cocoa. Located in the village of Buyo in the North West region of Côte d’Ivoire, the supplier Coopérative Agricole Benianye de Buyo (CABB) is now only producing the highest quality cocoa beans.
Cocaf Ivoire – Noble, one of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan supply chain partners, has been working with the cooperative and its over 500 farmers to improve their farming practices in order to produce cocoa grown under the standards of UTZ CERTIFIED, the leading certification program for sustainable cocoa production.
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan has had a profound impact on the cooperative as farmers have learnt new skills and techniques to harvest and ferment their beans and they now receive a premium for each bag of cocoa delivered. The cooperative now prides itself on only producing the highest quality cocoa beans; it no longer sells any standard cocoa.
“We are not only able to say that our cocoa is the very best, but also that it is grown sustainably” said Koffi N’Goran Nestor, the Cooperative General Secretary. “Working with Noble and Nestlé with the UTZ CERTIFIED programme has helped us to earn more money for our crop. With that money we are able to invest more in our children and in the community”.
CABB cooperative has also received 30,000 high yielding cocoa plantlets from Nestlé’s Research and Development Centre in Abidjan in order that its farmers can improve their overall productivity. The cocoa plants are stronger, less vulnerable to disease and potentially yield twice than average trees in cocoa farms today, once they reach full productivity around four or five years after planting.
Picture shows a farmer discussing fermentation techniques with training staff.
