Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business – in cooperation with the Ghana Cocoa Board – is expanding its sustainable cocoa program with the launch of a four-year commitment to farmer training in Ghana.

The training will be delivered in partnership with Ghanaian-licensed cocoa buying company Akuafo Adamfo and the non-governmental organization Solidaridad West Africa. The aim of the scheme is to train 15,000 farmers and support cocoa farming communities over the next four years in the Ashanti and Western regions of Ghana.

“Helping farmers adopt better farming practices so they can improve the quality and size of their yields is a central part of the Cargill Sustainable Cocoa Program”, explains Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, managing director of Cargill Ghana. “Over the next four years, these training activities will help Ghanaian cocoa farmers to achieve better results and benefit from achieving UTZ certification.”

The target for the first year is to train 5,000 farmers to become independently certified.

The certified cocoa beans will be processed at Cargill’s cocoa processing plant in Tema and can be traced throughout the supply chain as they become Gerkens Ghana cocoa.