Accra, April 23 - The global food price crisis could affect cocoa production if it triggers social unrest in key growers such as Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the 10-nation Cocoa Producers' Alliance (COPAL) said on Wednesday.
COPAL Secretary-General Sonai Ebai said the inter-government body, which groups producing states from Africa, Latin America and Asia, had not had reports of any immediate impact on cocoa output resulting from food prices spiking across the world.
But he expressed fears that a prolongation of the crisis, which has already caused food protests to flare in some West African growers like Ivory Coast and Cameroon, could threaten cocoa output through its destabilising effects on societies.
"For Ivory Coast as number one producer, I am hoping this is limited to the cities because should it affect people up-country. It could impact cocoa production, cocoa deliveries and cocoa flows in the market," Ebai said in an interview.
A doubling of the price of major cereals on international markets since mid-2007 has increased the risk of hunger, poverty and social upheaval in developing countries and sent alarm bells ringing among governments and aid agencies around the world.
Speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. trade and development meeting in Ghana, Ebai said many cocoa farmers had been sheltered from the food crisis as they also grew subsistence crops that sustained their families in the short term.
"But this can't be self-sufficient, especially when there are food shortages or unaffordable food. Besides, they need to buy other staples like bread and rice and with the increase in world market prices for these commodities, they are bound to suffer," he said,
Ebai said COPAL was also worried about climate change, and the abrupt alterations it inflicted on weather patterns.
"Now, when we expect rains we don't get them, when we don't expect them, we do get them, so it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the conditions," he added.
He said COPAL would continue to push for international support for cocoa growing countries to adopt modern technologies that could enhance productivity.
"FARMER HAS TO SURVIVE"
The organisation believed that to boost food output and improve cocoa's long-term sustainability, farmers who were not able to adopt modern technology should move out of cocoa and use their lands for food crops that fetch good prices.
"That is the new thinking in sustainability for cocoa: more intensive cultivation, smaller trees especially for West Africa making it easier to harvest, increase in productivity per hectare, moving some of the farmers who don't adopt technology out of cocoa to tubers and other short-cycle crops," he said.
Ebai said that although cocoa prices were high, member countries were concerned about their farmers being squeezed in the middle of food and oil price hikes.
"The farmer has to survive, feed his family and costs of inputs will go up if petroleum prices continue to go up. So even though the commodity prices seem to be strong now, they won't be able to make ends meet," he said.
Ebai said the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting in Ghana was considering a commodities initiative to review issues such as marketing liberalisation.
Delegates at the conference complained that liberalisation had left small farmers exposed to the bargaining power of large Western agro-businesses, which force down prices.
Where it was possible to go back to a state-run marketing board, that should be done, Ebai said, citing the case of Ghana where farmers were not only getting better prices for their cocoa but were also benefiting from other official incentives.
"Each commodity is unique so we should look at commodity by commodity and country by country ... once in a while we need to take stock and see whether we are going right or not," he said.
Ebai said the new UNCTAD initiative aimed to increase value for small farmers and improve cooperation between the public and private sectors. UNCTAD had proposed a fund to support diversification as well as micro-financing for farming.