Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprungli is extending its capabilities for sustainable production of cocoa in Ghana.
The company's cocoa farming program in Ghana seeks to provide additional support to more than 45,000 farmers in the region, to improve their agricultural, social and environmental farming practices aimed at more than doubling productivity yield and increasing farm family income.
It involves launch of a detailed farm mapping, a complete farmer professionalization training package and improved planting material through farmer-led nurseries. In each district a Village Resource Centre will be installed and farmers will have access to credit for necessary planting appliances in newly set up farm shops.
By 2016, the company plans to have the training program completed for all farmers in the region that delivers cocoa in the framework of the special purchasing model of Lindt & Sprungli which guarantees a consistent volume of quality cocoa beans through traceability.
The program is being done in partnership with the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana and Source Trust Ghana. It is supported by the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), an organization with the aim of up-scaling and accelerating sustainable trade.
