Protecting forests with Fairtrade cocoa

The Fairtrade Standards complement the EU deforestation law, and promote sharing the burden of meeting regulation more fairly amongst all stakeholders in the supply chain, from farmers to exporters and importers, to manufacturers, to brands and to retailers.

Structural poverty is a root cause of deforestation. Due to low prices and low incomes, poverty is widespread among many smallholder farmers in countries producing cocoa. The Fairtrade Standards include a Fairtrade Minimum Price, which acts as a vital safety net for smallholder farmers when prices drop. Meanwhile, the Fairtrade Premium is an extra sum of money paid on top of the selling price which the cooperative and its members invest in projects of their choice. Recognising the additional costs of organic production, Fairtrade also has an additional payment for organic cocoa. It is clear, that there can be no sustainable cocoa sector until farmers earn a living income.

The Fairtrade Standards are complemented by programmes and projects with various partners. These programmes and projects connect cooperatives and farmers with more resources so they can accelerate progress in preventing deforestation, monitoring land use, and championing forest protection.

Fairtrade partners with organisations to improve access of farmers and cooperatives to geolocation data as well as access to satellite deforestation monitoring data to better understand the risk of deforestation for cooperatives.