Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana Cancel Hershey-Run Cocoa Sustainability Programs
Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are cancelling all the cocoa sustainability programmes that US company Hershey runs in their countries, accusing the chocolate maker of trying to avoid paying a cocoa premium aimed at fighting…
Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are cancelling all the cocoa sustainability programmes that US company Hershey runs in their countries, accusing the chocolate maker of trying to avoid paying a cocoa premium designed to fight farmer poverty.
In a letter to Hershey, the Ivorian and Ghanaian cocoa regulators accuse Hershey of sourcing unusually large volumes of physical cocoa on the ICE futures exchange in order to avoid the premium, known as the Living Income Differential (LID).
The letter, which also accuses Fuji Oil Holdings' subsidiary Blommer of helping Hershey, was verified as authentic by spokespeople for the regulators.
Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, which produce two-thirds of the world's cocoa, said they were also banning third-party companies from running sustainability programmes in the West African countries on Hershey's behalf.
The programmes certify that cocoa is sustainably sourced, meaning that its production is free of human rights and environmental violations such as child labour or farming in a protected forest.
