Direct payments help cocoa farmers but living income remains out of reach

Swiss multinational Nestlé’s strategy of offering financial incentives to cocoa farmers has helped boost household income but still falls short of a living income. In January Nestlé announced the release of a new KitKat chocolate bar for the European market. It wasn’t a new flavour or a more decadent version. Instead, it was a KitKat manufactured from cocoa beans sourced entirely from select farmers from Ivory Coast who were given financial incentives for reaching certain targets. Ivory Coast accounts for around 45% of the world’s cocoa production, which brings in export revenue of $3.5 billion (CHF3.2 billion) a year. But according to surveys carried out in 2019 by Cocoa Life, cocoa farmers in the country make just $1.23 a day, far less than the living wage benchmark of $2.55 a day. The 10,000 Ivorian farmers enrolled in Nestlé’s Income Accelerator programme received a cash transfer of up to €500 (CHF490) a year for good agricultural practices such as regularly pruning their cocoa ...