Divine Chocolate: A Fairtrade company co-owned by cocoa farmers

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Divine Chocolate A Fairtrade company co-owned
by cocoa farmers

• A Case Study in Social Enterprise

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The amazing story of how small scale cocoa
farmers in Ghana came to own 45 of Divine
Chocolate Ltd
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Lets look at conventional businesses first

• A business is an organisation that provides
  products or services to consumers.
• Most are privately owned and exist to make money
  for their owners.
• Businesses have to meet the needs of consumers.

• Divine Chocolate is all about making and selling
  delicious chocolate.
• Making a good quality product that consumers want
  to buy is the starting point for everything
  Divine Chocolate does.

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So what is a Social EnterpriseOne definition is
A social enterprise is a type of business which
has been set up to achieve a social objective
rather than just to make money for the owners

• Divine Chocolate is a brilliant example of a
  social enterprise
• Farmers own part of the company so they benefit
  when the business does well
• It was one of the first fair trade companies in
  the UK and is an example of how to be a
  successful business as well as helping make
  peoples lives better
• Working with a large cooperative of farmers in
  Ghana, Divine Chocolate sells Fairtrade chocolate
  and helps improve the lives of disadvantaged
  producers and workers at the same time

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So What is Divines Social Mission? Improving
the lives of cocoa farmers
Divine Chocolates mission is to improve the
lives of West African cocoa farmers by creating
and selling chocolate bars that allow the farmers
to earn more from the sale of those chocolate bars
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Divine is a 100 fairtrade company

• All Divine Chocolates products carry the
  Fairtrade Mark
• The Fairtrade Mark is an independent guarantee
  that producers in developing countries get a fair
  deal
• That means farmers get a fair price for their
  products and their communities receive a
  Fairtrade premium

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Why cocoa farmers? Like other small scale
farmers, cocoa farmers remain poor

• There are 1.4 billion smallholder farmers in the
  world
• They support 2 billion people living on the
  planet
• That is nearly a third of the worlds population

• Smallholder farmers in poor countries often find
  that it is difficult to make a living from
  selling what they grow
• Sometimes this is because the way trade works is
  unfair for them

• Crops grown for foreign markets (eg cocoa)
  provide valuable income but the farmers often
  see little of the value from the end product
  (i.e. chocolate)

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The Divine StoryBegins with cocoa farmers in
Africa . . .

• Ghanaian cocoa farmers typically earn less than
  1 each day
• Farmers have little control over the price they
  get for their cocoa beans
• Wanting to gain more control, farmers pooled
  resources to create a co-operative of cocoa
  farmers, known as the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union
• Kuapa Kokoo means good cocoa farmer in Twi, the
  language of the cocoa farmers

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The Divine StoryThe Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union

• They produce nearly 1 of world cocoa output
• Around 70 of their cocoa beans are sold to
  Fairtrade buyers
• The Fairtrade market is not yet large enough for
  them to be able to sell all their beans this way
• As demand for Fairtrade products rise farmers
  will be able to sell more of their crop through
  Fairtrade channels

The Kuapa Kokoo slogan , Pa Pa Paa, means best
of the best
In 1997 Kuapa Kokoo made the major and innovative
decision to set up a chocolate company in the UK
in order to get more value from their cocoa
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The Divine Story Then moves to the UK where
Divine is created
The better Divine performs the more it can spend
on improving the lives of cocoa farmers and
educating people in the UK about fair trade
Divine produces and sells chocolate sourced
solely from Fairtrade cocoa beans bought from
Kuapa Kokoo
The more Fairtrade beans are sold the more the
farmers income increases and the more money the
farmers earn to spend on projects to help their
community
Farmers sell Fairtrade cocoa beans to Divine
Chocolate
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The Divine Storyobjectives combine business
drive and social mission
To make and sell delicious chocolate
To make the trading system fairer for
everyone, including farmers
To be a bridge between consumers and producers
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The Divine Story the chocolate market is

• VERY BIG!
• A very mature and competitive market
• Globally dominated by four companies
• Global chocolate market worth 62 billion
• Global cocoa market 5 billion
• The average person in the UK eats 10kg each year
  which is the highest per capita consumption in
  the world
• In the UK 3 companies share 83 of the market
  Kraft/Cadbury, Mars and Nestle

Did you know? The average UK family spends more
on chocolate in a year than a cocoa farmer earns
in a year
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The Divine StoryThe Mixed blessings of success

• In Autumn 2009, Cadbury switched Dairy Milk to
  Fairtrade
• The cocoa in Dairy Milk is sourced from Kuapa
  Kokoo
• Good news for Kuapa Kokoo
• Fairtrade cocoa sales from Ghana have tripled
• But increased competition for Divine
• Ironically, Cadbury could not have made the
  switch if Divine had not worked with Kuapa Kokoo
  for over a decade to create a Fairtrade cocoa
  supply chain with sufficient capacity

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The Divine StoryHow is the Divine business model
different?

• Partnership based
• Committed to Fairtrade
• Ownership

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The Importance of Great marketingDivine does
advertising with ethics
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The Divine StoryMarketing tapping into key
events
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Marketing DivineUse of Celebrity endorsement
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A Story Within a Story
The Dubble Bar boldly going where no chocolate
has gone before! In 2000, Comic Relief joined
forces with Divine Chocolate Ltd to make the
first Fairtrade product for young people
Dubble! Over 10 million Dubble bars have been
sold and the Dubble family has also hatched an
Easter egg and mini-eggs Over 50,000 young
supporters of Fairtrade have signed up as Dubble
Agents to change the world, chunk by chunk!
www.dubble.co.uk is a source of fun and facts
about Fairtrade for young people
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What Success looks Likefor divine chocolate
Divine Chocolate Ltd is profitable with good
sales growth and has been able to pay dividends
to shareholders
Year Turnover Profit
2009/10 10,415,340 22,286
But sales and profits are only one measure of
success
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What Success looks LikeFor Kuapa Kokoo

• Sold 1,188 tonnes of cocoa beans at Fairtrade
  prices in 2009/10
• This earned the cooperative 3.8m
• These sales earned Kuapa about 178,000 in
  Fairtrade Premium to spend on farming
  improvements and community projects
• Divine also gave Kuapa 208,000 towards producer
  support and development in 2009/10
• Divine issued its first ever profit dividend to
  shareholders in 2007 and all 45,000 farmers in
  the co-operative received 1 each

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What Success looks Likefor the community - water
wells
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What Success looks Like for the farmers
children - schools
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What Success looks Likefor women - empowerment
Christiana Ohene Agyare President of
Kuapa Kokoo
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IN SUMMARY

• Divine Chocolate Limited has shown that it is
  possible for small holder farmers from Africa to
  co-own a successful company in one of the most
  competitive and mature markets in the world

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Now its up to you. . . .

• Why not
• Tell your family, friends and neighbours about
  Divine and Dubble chocolate
• Sign up to be a Dubble Agent at
  www.dubble.co.uk/dubble-agents
• Hold a Fairtrade cake stall and raise money for
  your cause of choice with Dubbles Bake Sell
  kit www.divinechocolate.com/uk/shop/dubble
• Estimate what you spend on chocolate each year
  and what you could do with your buying power
• Watch videos make the children of Fairtrade cocoa
  farmers www.papapaalive.org