Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 39
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- For instance, Divine Chocolate Company Ltd. (formerly the Day Chocolate Company) was established in 1998 by Kuapa Kokoo Farmers' Union (KKFU), representing 68,000 cocoa-producing farmers in Ghana, and TWIN Trading, a membership organization based in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland comprising 24 farmer cooperatives from eight countries dedicated to developing the fair-trade supply chain for the coffee, nuts, cocoa, sugar and fruit produced by 163,000 farmer families. Christian Aid, Comic Relief and Oikocredit, a microfinance institution, also supported the joint venture by taking shares, as did the Body Shop, which later donated its shares to KKFU. The Department for International Development of the United Kingdom guaranteed a bank credit line from a major commercial bank, which gave Divine Chocolate better access to finance and enabled it to grant a larger quantity of shares of the company to KKFU, resulting in greater decision-making power in the operations. KKFU now owns 45 per cent of the shares of Divine Chocolate as well as 33 per cent of the shares of the United States branch of Divine created in 2007. Divine Chocolate sold more than $71.5 million worth of chocolate in its first nine years of operation. In 2001, dividends were paid for the first time, after offsetting set-up costs. They remain symbolic (a direct payment of $1 per member), but come on top of the fixed prices by KKFU, the fair-trade premium and the benefits of the farmer support and development programme, to which Divine contributed more than $1.22 million in its first 10 years of operation. The arrangement facilitated income-generating activities and supported community projects (including boreholes, schools, sanitary facilities and mills), as well as the training of farmers and participatory decision-making.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2011
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Food, Report to the UNGA (2011), A/66/262, para. 39.
- Paragraph number
- 39
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Date added
58 relationships, 58 entities