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Kuapa Kokoo is a Fairtrade cooperative, an association of more than 45,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana set up to develop fairer trading practices and represent the interests of cocoa farmers.

In 1998, the members of Kuapa Kokoo voted to establish their own Fairtrade chocolate company in the UK and Divine Chocolate was born. The co-operative owns 45% of the shares in Divine Chocolate Ltd.

Kuapa Kokoo means 'good cocoa farmer' in the Twi language of Ghana. Their motto is 'Pa Pa Paa' which means 'best of the best' in Twi.

Farmers are members of village societies who sell their cocoa through the trading arm of Kuapa Kokoo to the government cocoa board. Kuapa Kokoo is able to improve the lives of its members by ensuring reliable and prompt payment, providing training, a credit loan scheme, and access to market information, as well as funding community projects through the 'Fairtrade premium' generated from Fairtrade.

Although all their cocoa is certified Fairtrade, Kuapa Kokoo is only able to sell a small proportion (currently about 3%) of its cocoa to Fairtrade companies. There are several reasons for this.

Kuapa Kokoo is a large co-operative, producing 1% of the world's cocoa output, and Fairtrade markets are still relatively small.

The chocolate market is ferociously competitive, worth £3.4 billion in the UK alone, with a few big chocolate companies spending tens of millions of pounds promoting their brands: a very challenging environment for new Fairtrade chocolate companies.

Finally, there is not yet enough demand from consumers. More shops will only stock Fairtrade chocolate if people show that they will buy it.

The Pa Pa Paa resources are all about educating the next generation about Fairtrade and encouraging young people to be the proactive consumers of the future. By putting their understanding into action they can create more demand for Fairtrade, so that Kuapa Kokoo and other small-scale producer organisations can sell more of their produce on fair terms.

What does Kuapa Kokoo mean for cocoa farmers?

There are lots of benefits to being a member of Kuapa Kokoo. Here are some of them:

• Projects such as clean water wells, built using income from the Social Premium from Fairtrade, benefit all Kuapa members as well as others living in their communities.
• When the harvest has been good, Kuapa pays extra bonuses to all members.
• Kuapa pays farmers fairly and promptly in cash, or cheque if they prefer. Farmers vote for the best person in their local community to have the responsibility for keeping the weighing scales accurate, testing cocoa quality, and paying correctly and on time. This person is called the Recorder.
• Kuapa offers training in areas such as quality control and record keeping.
• Being part of Kuapa means being part of a community working together and having people to share problems with.
• All Kuapa farmers have a say in how the whole co-operative is run and the right to elect village representatives.
• Kuapa Kokoo encourages greater involvement by women, giving them the skills to create income of their own during the off-season, and the confidence to represent their communities alongside the men.

Fairtrade

Fairtrade aims to change the way that conventional international trade works, building fairer trading relationships between consumers and companies in rich countries and commodity producers in poor countries.

The Fairtrade Mark is displayed on products that meet these guarantees, and all products that display the mark are independently audited to ensure they are genuinely providing a fair deal for producers.

What does Fairtrade mean for cocoa farmers?

Cocoa farmers' organisations get a guaranteed minimum price for their cocoa beans of $1600 (about £800) per tonne, which covers at least their cost of production and gives them the security to plan for the future.

Without Fairtrade, farmers' organisations sell into the conventional market, where the price of cocoa fluctuates and can fall below the cost of production.

Farmers benefit from guaranteed minimum health and safety conditions and are encouraged and helped to protect the environment. The process for buying and selling farmers' produce is fair, clear and more accountable.

Education and training are provided, in areas such as improving quality and preventing crop disease.

An extra 'Fairtrade premium' of $150 (about £75) is also paid on each tonne of Fairtrade cocoa, and is invested in economic development or community projects, such as bore holes, schools, sanitation facilities or medical clinics. These projects are decided upon democratically by farmers' organisations.

Farmer cooperatives are always democratic, so farmers have a real say in how the organisation that sells their cocoa is run and how the income form Fairtrade is used to benefit the whole community.

• More about the two Ghana schools and the Kuapa Kids Community Project that supports them
• More about us
• More about Dubble Fairtrade chocolate