From Bean to Bar This presentation is brought to you by: Who likes chocolate? Everyone? What goes into chocolate? Who knows where it comes from? Today we’re going to find out. Ask students where they think cocoa comes from. Does it grow in hot places or cold places? This presentation is brought to you by: www.tradingvisions.org www.papapaa.org www.divinechocolate.com

equator Forty-seven countries produce cocoa and most is grown in a narrow belt 10 degrees either side of the Equator, where temperatures are between 21°C and 32°C and rainfall between 1,500mm and 2,500mm a year – the perfect humid, tropical climate for cocoa trees.   By contrast, London’s temperature range is between 4°C and 28°C, with an annual rainfall of 600mm.

[If you have a Divine chocolate bar, show Divine bar] [If you have a Divine chocolate bar, show Divine bar]. We are going to talk about this chocolate bar. All the cocoa in Divine Chocolate comes from Ghana.  Kuapa Kokoo is a co-operative of cocoa farmers in Ghana whose cocoa beans go into Divine Chocolate bars.

This is Mim a cocoa farming village in a clearing in the rainforest in Ghana.   It is hot and humid here. Cocoa trees grow up to five metres tall and they need shade, so farmers plant them under the rainforest canopy. They also plant other useful tall crops in amongst the cocoa trees, like banana plants and palm nut trees.

Three to five years after planting, each cocoa tree can produce up to 50-80 cocoa pods every year. The pods grow directly out of the trunk or branches of the tree. The cocoa pods grow up to 20cm-30cm in length, and turn yellow when they are ripe.   Cocoa beans, the seeds, grow inside the cocoa pods. There are generally about 40 beans in a pod.

The forest floor is a dangerous place for farmers The forest floor is a dangerous place for farmers. There are poisonous snakes, scorpions and all kinds of insects. Cocoa farmers wear wellington boots to protect themselves.

Farmers travel to each other’s farms to share the work between them and support each other to get more done, faster.

This is a farmer and her daughter sitting in a clearing on their cocoa farm. They have already cut down the pods from the tree with the machete; now they are splitting the pods and scraping out the sticky white beans.

The cocoa beans are in a slimy white fruit pulp inside the cocoa pod.

Having collected the cocoa beans, the farmers tip the beans on to banana leaves, and then wrap the beans up in the leaves. They leave the cocoa beans in a warm, shady place in the rainforest to ferment for about 7 days.

They check the beans from time to time They check the beans from time to time. You can see in this picture how the beans are starting to ferment – the sticky goo on the leaves shows the process has begun.

In the village, the beans are laid out in the direct sunlight to dry on special long drying tables made of locally grown bamboo. It takes about 7 days in the hot sun for the cocoa beans to dry completely.

 Each sack is weighed and printed with ‘Ghana Cocoa Board, Produce of Ghana.’ The farmer is paid half of what they will earn. The other half is paid when the cocoa is accepted by the government cocoa board.

The sacks are loaded on to a big truck; each truck can carry 180 sacks The sacks are loaded on to a big truck; each truck can carry 180 sacks. They are taken to Tema.

Tema is the biggest port in the country, and it’s from here that most of Ghana’s cocoa is exported. Containers are loaded on to ships, which carry cocoa to Europe, where it will be used to make chocolate.

After the cocoa beans arrive at the European port, they are taken by lorry to the chocolate factory in Germany. Here the cocoa beans are roasted to get rid of their shells. The beans inside break into little pieces called cocoa nibs. The nibs are crushed and turned into cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. These are then mixed together with the other ingredients: milk, sugar and flavourings such as vanilla.

This is the very final stage of the chocolate chain This is the very final stage of the chocolate chain. The final link in the bean to bar story is you, the buyer. The choices you make have an influence all the way back through the chain to its very beginning, the cocoa farmer. Lots of hard work has gone into your chocolate bar.

Cocoa farmers work hard for their money! How much do cocoa farmers earn? Cocoa farmers work hard but don’t earn very much money for their work. They remain poor. Average weekly earnings of Ghanaian cocoa farmer: £6.25 - that’s less than £1.00 a day! The price of cocoa on the world market continues to go up and down. This means cocoa farmers have no long-term security, and in some situations, can’t even cover their farming costs. It is therefore unsurprising that not many people want to become cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Have you seen this logo before. What does it mean Have you seen this logo before? What does it mean? Where have you seen it?   When you buy Fairtrade products, the farmer at the other end is helped because he or she earns a fair amount for their crop. Their community also earns a ‘Fairtrade Premium’, an extra amount that they can use to spend on projects which help everyone. Here are some examples of what Kuapa Kokoo have spent Fairtrade premiums on…

This is a water pump. Kuapa Kokoo has built hundreds of water pumps in cocoa growing villages. Water from a pump is much cleaner than water from streams and ponds.

This is a school block built with Fairtade Premium money This is a school block built with Fairtade Premium money. Traditionally school buildings are made of mud. This building of concrete blocks and with a corrugated iron roof is much more robust.

This is a Kuapa Kokoo’s women’s group This is a Kuapa Kokoo’s women’s group. Because cocoa is a seasonal crop, there are times of the year when there is no income from the cocoa farm. This women’s group have used Fairtrade Premium money to buy the equipment so that they can make soap out of the husks of the cocoa pods, to sell on local markets.

Divine Chocolate is an extra special company Divine Chocolate is an extra special company. Not only is it Fairtrade, but the cocoa farmers in Ghana actually co-own the company. The farmers own 44% of the shares, and share in the profits.