Cocoa farmers get K200,000 support from chocolate firm

TWO hundred and sixty-two cocoa fermentry owners in Morobe and Madang have received a total of K200,000 in cash premiums as incentives from international chocolate company Lindt and Sprungli.
The cash payout through Lae-based cocoa exporter Outspan, started on Wednesday with 36 fermenters from lower Watut and 14-Mile, Morobe and ended on Friday.
Outspan’s cocoa sustainability manager Melinda Thom said the incentive came under a farm sustainability programme for cocoa farmers and fermentries who exported directly to the US-based company.
“Basically they are supplying quality cocoa to Lindt and Sprungli so at the end of the year, a premium is paid back to these fermentries,” she said.
“This premium payment is calculated using a formula based on the total bags they sell to Outspan over the course of the year. So the more they sell, the more they get in cash premiums.
“Apart from cash, we also support farmers with in-kind premiums where we’ve distributed over 3,000 toolsets and this year, we started distributing about 500 solar sets to families just to improve their lives.”
Thom said the programme started in 2017 with farmers in Mutzing and extended to parts of Huon-Gulf and neighbouring Madang province.
As of September, there are more than 4,000 farmers and 262 fermentries registered in the programme.
“Lindt and Sprungli funds us (Outspan) to be able to carry out capacity building for farmers, improving cocoa quality, trainings, distribute inputs as well like cocoa seedlings, agro forestry saplings and community development initiatives.”
She said so far water and classrooms projects were carried out in 18 communities, benefiting more than 5,000 people, a total of 434,486 cocoa seedlings produced and distributed and over 30,0000 agro-forestry saplings such as galip and kwila distributed.
Thom said Outspan also had other similar programmes with other farmer groups across the country registered with various other chocolate companies.