Fairtrade Impact Study
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Chart 14: Yearly income and production, coffee case
As described in chapter 3, in the cocoa case in Ghana low productivity of the farmers is a problem. As can be seen in chart 15, productivity of the interviewed cocoa farmers improved over the last five years in TG and in CG. TG farmers on average produce 6.06 bags of cocoa more in 2011 than five years before and CG farmers 6.1. The CG farmers, however, produce more cocoa than the TG farmers; Fairtrade apparently did not have any impact on the increase of production of cocoa in Ghana (since the cocoa production of the CG also increased over the same period, external factors must be responsible for higher productivity). Over the last five years, the income of TG and CG increased. Interestingly, in spite of their lower productivity, TG farmers have a higher income than CG farmers, although they produce less cocoa. This shows that Fairtrade had a positive impact on the income of cocoa farmers. The low income of cocoa farmers is one of the major contributing factors and reasons for the use of child labour and therefore needs to be noted, as described in chapter 4.2. In this context, the positive impact of Fairtrade on the income situation of cocoa farmers might reduce the likelihood of child labour; however, determinants like gender, access to household decision-making and so forth must also be considered.