Cargill invests $113m in site expansions, $12.3m towards sustainability and traceability
Cargill is investing more than $113m to expand its cocoa processing sites in Yopougon, Ivory Coast and Tema, Ghana.
A $100m investment will increase production capacity at Yopougon by 50 per cent, creating 85 full-time local jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs, while a $13m investment increases capacity at the Tema site in Ghana by 20 per cent. To meet customer demand, a significant share of the additional capacity in the cocoa processing plant in Yopougon will be fully dedicated to produce Gerkens deeply rich brown cocoa powders.
At the same time, Cargill is also investing $12.3m over the next three years to expand sustainability and supply chain traceability programs in the two countries.
This is a combination of a $7.7m investment in Ivory Coast, and $3.4m in Ghana in programs that will enhance the safety and well-being of children and families in cocoa farming areas and provide a more transparent, traceable cocoa supply chain.
Explaining the expansion of the processing plants Lionel Soulard, managing director Cargill West-Africa said: “We aim to shift a greater share of our global grinding activities to the countries of origin, so we can support the establishment of a broader, local agri-food industry. Working directly with both governments and other key stakeholders, we are committed to economic growth, building sustainable local businesses and diversifying sources of income for cocoa farming communities.”
Cargill’s $3.4m investment in sustainability and social programs in Ghana will go towards expanded or new programs with partners to create a more sustainable cocoa sector.
In Ivory Coast, Cargill has committed an additional $1.2m to implement scalable mapping and monitoring technology in 2020, including GPS polygon mapping and a digital cooperative management system (CMS) to advance traceability of the supply chain.
