(Business in Cameroon) - Ahead of the 2014-2015 cocoa season, which was officially launched on September 4, 2014 in Bot Makak, a production basin of the Centre, Telcar Cocoa, a local trader of the Cargill global group, paid out 104 million FCFA in bonuses on September 3 in Muyuka to 500 Cameroonian certified cocoa farmers. The sum is the equivalent of 50 FCFA per kilogramme of certified cocoa produced during the last season.
The country’s leading cocoa exporter, Telcar Cocoa rewarded, for the first time in Cameroon, its “Cargill Cocoa Promise” partners. This involves a half of the 1,000 Cameroonian farmers with the best cultivation practices in terms of post-harvest and environmental awareness in the production of cocoa who were certified during the previous 2012-2013 season.
In accordance with current certification standards, the bonus was paid to farmers after the delivery of a certain tonnage of certified cocoa in the 2013-2014 season which officially came to a close on July 15. “Often, a half of the bonus is paid upfront to individual farmers while the other half is generally used to produce services to farmers who are members of agricultural organisations,” explains an industry expert.
The certification contributes to the overall improvement of the quality of cocoa produced, helping to ensure that the cocoa sold outside of cocoa producing countries is not only produced with strict adherence to social and environmental norms, but also that it has not been produced using forced child labour. The bonus for this type of cocoa therefore rewards the efforts of the producers to respect these stringent guidelines.