Cocoa Markets and Value Chains: Dynamics and Challenges For Sao Tome and Principe Organic Smallholders

Abstract

Cocoa is one of the main goods in the world agricultural trade markets, occupying the third position in exports. The paper introduces the cocoa value chain worldwide, its asymmetries, and the supply and value chain specific to the São Tomé and Principe (STP) organic cocoa. It aims to understand this value chain’s internal and external tensions and analyse its potential to be inserted in the international markets. The study uses panel data analysis from the FAOSTAT database. The tensions mentioned are due to the asymmetries of international markets and those regarding the production of organic cocoa in STP. At the level of STP and, despite measures to support organic production as a valuable alternative to the country’s development strategy, imbalances in the value chain persist that compromise the livelihoods of small producers responsible for most of production exported and the sustainability of the ecosystem.

Geographical Indications as an Added Value Strategy for São Tomé and Príncipe Organic Cocoa

“…Although producers are integrated into cooperatives through which they sell their organic cocoa beans and receive payments at higher prices, it is not clear whether this strategy contributes to significantly improve their livelihoods. Cooperatives and private companies have focused on technical solutions linked to improving agricultural practices, quality and market prices, with little information on price transmission and governance in the value chain, where the lack of bargaining power contrasts with the concentration of power in other links in the chain [8].…”

Organic Cocoa Value Chain Sustainability: The Perception of São Tomé and Príncipe’s Stakeholders

“…They included governmental institutions (n = 4), private companies (n = 3), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs; n = 1), researchers (n = 2), certification bodies (n = 2), cooperatives (n = 4), distributors and exporters (DE = 4), and sociotechnicians (n = 5). This last group are cooperatives technicians, who provide training and technical support to producers and substitute state-owned extension services [8]. Being from different organizations and contexts, the selected individual stakeholders reflect different interests, roles, and knowledge of sustainability.…”

“…Its production is primarily concentrated in the tropics (Africa), which represent two-thirds of the world production and where Côte d'Ivoire is the main producing country with around 40% of the world production [7]. In STP, this agricultural commodity plays an important role in the country's exports and is a vital contributor to smallholder producers' income, although it is facing climate challenges and several other risks [8]. In this country, the cocoa value chain is very fractional at the producer level, where approximately 70% of organic producers develop their activity in plots smaller than 2 hectares [9,10].…”

Cacao genotypes cultivated in agroforestry systems in Bahia have wide genetic variability in morpho-agronomic characters

“…Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is a neotropical understory tree native to South America that belongs to the Malvaceae family (Motamayor et al, 2002). Currently, cacao is cultivated in more than 50 humid tropical countries (Prazeres;Lucas;Marta-Costa, 2021) and is considered one of the most valuable agrobiological goods inherited from the Mesoamerican culture (Oztürk;Young, 2017). T. cacao is a perennial commercial crop and has a popular fruit known as cocoa, which provides the raw material for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food industries, mainly for the manufacture of chocolate (Whitlock;Bayer;Baum, 2001;Zuidema et al, 2005).…”