THE TRADE
Once the beans are dry, farmers pack them into sacks and take them to the Kuapa Kokoo village Recorder. The Recorder is responsible for weighing the beans and paying the farmer.
The Recorder is elected by the farmers and holds a really important and trusted position in the village. They weigh the cocoa, making sure each sack weighs 62.5kg, and pay the farmer. Kuapa Kokoo recorders can be trusted and this makes a huge difference to the cocoa farmers who know they won't be cheated.
Watch this film about Elias Mohammed - he is the Recorder in his village, Bayerebon3. “The farmers trust me,” says Elias. And the proof is that he has been a Recorder for 12 years – re-elected twice.
FAIR DEAL
When the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative of farmers sell their cocoa beans for Fairtrade chocolate, they are guaranteed a fair price. The price is set at $2000 per tonne of cocoa (about £71 per sack) by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation. On top of the Fairtrade price, Kuapa Kokoo receives $200 per tonne (about £7 per sack) to spend on community projects like building clean water wells and new schools. This extra money is called the ‘Social Premium’.
WEIGH IT UP
Cocoa farmers have sometimes been cheated when they sell their cocoa to non-Fairtrade buyers who have fixed the weighing scales to show a lower weight than the actual weight of the cocoa beans. To make sure they are not cheated - Kuapa Kokoo has made special "weight stones" weighing exactly 25kg and the farmers have the right to check the scales with a weighing stone.
SETTING SAIL
The sacks are loaded onto big green Kuapa lorries and taken to the port in Tema. There they are loaded onto cargo ships which set sail for Europe to a chocolate factory that specialises in making Fairtrade chocolate like Dubble and Divine.