Further Thoughts on Cocoa and the Environment
In my previous article, I raised questions about our industry’s continuing devotion to the concept of “100% Cocoa Ingredients”. In this I suggested that as over 80% of cocoa bean is fundamentally used for the production of cocoa butter then the time had come to challenge whether the use of cocoa butter was the only way of producing chocolate products acceptable to the consumer
I would now like to expand on a couple of environmental issues concerning cocoa which currently attract very little attention but which cannot be ignored.
Whilst Cocoa trees (and associated best practice harvest and primary treatment) are unique as a way of producing cocoa flavour, they are an extremely inefficient way of producing vegetable fats.
In addition, the most typical (at least European preferred) cocoa flavours for chocolate are by and large produced by small farmers in West Africa rather than by large plantations in other parts of the world. The impact of any change is therefore likely to be less on small producers and greater on plantation producers who have a greater impact on land use and potential clearing. However major adjustments in demand will depress prices and this will be difficult if not impossible for smaller farmers, who have cocoa as their major cash crop, to adjust to.
The obvious alternative source for fats for chocolate manufacture is Palm Oil or other suitable mass produced vegetable oils. Whilst this product is widely demonised, the oil palm is just about the most efficient way of converting sunlight into vegetable oils.
There are other mass vegetable oil sources which may be adapted for use as a substitute for cocoa butter, particularly those grown in other areas less sensitive to environmental change, but without a regulatory change at least on the horizon the necessary investment in technology is unlikely
Land Use
Typical land use figures for cocoa are:-
Ghana/Nigeria will be predominantly small farmers, Cote d’Ivoire tending towards estates and Malaysia mainly estates
Compare this with typical palm oil yields per hectare for Malaysia – 4.5 tonnes per hectare
Thus in land use terms, cocoa butter production requires something like twenty times the land area to produce the same amount of vegetable fat. Even if losses in processing palm into cocoa fat replacers are introduced, there is still a radical difference in land area requirement.
This could become increasingly significant if climate change or other factors force cocoa agronomy into new areas from those currently occupied, this will in essence be new land in tropical environments required mainly to produce cocoa fat.
In very simple terms, cocoa for flavour requires about 2.5m hectares (using Ghana/Nigeria output figures) whereas cocoa for fat requires about 6m hectares (using Cd’I output figures). This fat demand could be met from less than 1m hectares by palm oil
Water Use
Whilst this is a more difficult factor to evaluate because the mix of natural rainfall vs irrigation and local water demand will be very varied, the published figures again show a radical difference:-
The website “waterfootprint.org” records that the water footprint of cocoa fats is 34,000 m3/t whilst that for palm oil is 5,000 m3/t.
This very high water demand magnifies the likelihood of climate change affecting the viability of some existing areas for cocoa agronomy whilst the impact on palm oil is likely to be less.
Effluent
Direct effluent from runoff from plantations is difficult to find accurate figures for. However, the much greater area per unit of output and much greater vulnerability to pests etc. would suggest that cocoa plantations probably produce more run off pollution per tonne of output in terms of pesticides etc. than do palm plantations.
Palm oil mills however do produce significant amounts of pollution (particularly high BOD and COD waste water streams. The ameliorating factor here is that such effluent streams are localised and readily treatable using existing technology, admittedly with some investment and operating cost.
Labour Availability
Cocoa is a relatively labour intensive crop and many areas where cocoa is grown on a large plantation basis are relatively short of labour. In addition to this workers on cocoa plantations are relatively poorly paid because of the basic level of the work. Workers can often earn more by working on rubber or oil palm (the resulting labour shortage has had a significant impact on the viability of cocoa growing in some areas, notably peninsular Malaysia). This can also lead to the controversial employment of young people on cocoa plantations.
Financial Return to Farmers
A significant factor associated with any major change in cocoa demand and sourcing is likely to be the financial situation of small and medium sized cocoa farmers.
This is probably the most difficult and potentially emotive issue which is likely to arise. The global cocoa industry is geared to produce the current demand and in addition has large stocks of cocoa bean in warehouses around the world.
Any significant change in demand would significantly depress prices in the short to medium term as the cocoa industry adjusted to new conditions.
Whilst the larger plantation companies will rapidly switch to other crops (as they have done where costs or plant disease have made cocoa uneconomic to them) this will not be easily possible for smaller growers.