Multi-agency Cocoa Platform

Seven cocoa-producing countries put their diagnoses on the same table and agreed a regional platform to close the productivity, quality and cadmium gaps that limit access to premium markets.

Context of the story

Cocoa producers in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries share many of the problems that need to be addressed, depending on the particularities and dynamics of the territories. In several countries of the region, cocoa cultivation has received a strong boost in recent years through productive modernization processes and the generation of new technologies. However, the region needs to better coordinate these efforts and investments through strategic alliances between the main managers of innovation, through a platform or network. The establishment of a platform will make it possible to shorten technological development times by adding capabilities and complementing efforts.

Regional Platform

The Implemented Initiative

The objective of this seed fund was to create a multi-agency cocoa platform that strengthens LAC's position as a net producer and exporter of quality cocoa. The platform will promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences and facilitate the development of a wide-ranging regional project, where public-private, national, regional and international institutions participate, to comprehensively address technological, organizational and institutional issues of the value chain cocoa. This platform will be identified as "Cacao 2030-2050".

Regional Proposal for R+ D i in cocoa

The technological solution

For the proper functioning of this platform, it was necessary to carry out a diagnosis of the realities of the producers and the historical efforts of countries and their institutions to reduce technological gaps for a sustainable intensification of production. Subsequently, a consensual regional impact project was developed focused on solving emerging crop problems.

"Cocoa constitutes an alternative to face the effects of climate change and is currently key to carry out peace processes in certain regions of Latin America."

— José Luis Zambrano Mendoza

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Type of project

Agronomic Practices

Innovation

Strategy 1. Resilient farms

Adaptative

Technological-Organizational-Institutional

Crops, Food and Markets

Family agriculture

Policies

Capacity building

Results

The seed fund produced the State of the Art Diagnosis of the Cocoa Value Chain in Latin America and the Caribbean, an 82-page document published in 2018 containing detailed profiles of seven producing countries, a regional analysis of production, markets and research, and a SWOT analysis of the sector. The regional coordination workshop was held on 28 and 29 August 2018 in Quevedo, Ecuador, and produced the country-by-country survey of intervention areas that structures the diagnosis. The Cacao 2030-2050 platform was established and given a presence on the FONTAGRO website, together with its work plan and the agreed project proposal document.