COCOA CORRESPONDENCE 1

Open letter to the Armajaro Trading Ltd, 65 Curzon St., London, W1J8PE

Dear Armajaro,

Greetings from St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean.

I am a cocoa grower with just over one acre of cocoa, having the intention to cultivate five (5) acres within a year or two. Having read the memorandum of agreement for a cocoa support programme, which Nicko Debenham from Armajaro signed with our Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, I am writing to critique how you look at us, Vincentian farmers and our government. To be sure, I will write our prime minister also, but first to you, Armajaro.{{more}}

On page 1 of the 5-page memorandum of agreement sir, your company states that it is open “desirous of developing a sustainable cocoa industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines…” as you know, “a sustainable industry” means that cocoa production will not bring harm to the environment and Armajaro has set up its own “source trust” and is active in the “UTZ” network, both of which give you credit when it comes to environmental management and encouraging certified farm practices. But “a sustainable industry” also means that the cocoa industry does not make the growers remain poor, become poor, stagnate at the foot of the value chain, and operate as unskilled and deskilled pickers of beans and pruners of chupons. It is this meaning of sustainable which Armajaro is determined to violate. The NGO activists like OXFAM and Fairtrade, the international Cocoa Agencies like ICCO and WCF, as well as the intergovernmental bodies like UNCTAD and CTA all challenge the global cocoa industry and Armajaro to bring producers into the value chain with equity, voice, and earnings that match their investments. Let me remind you that Nicko Debenham of Armajaro is on the executive committee of the World Cocoa Foundation, and the WCF message is simple. “WCF puts farmers and their families first, to ensure that future generations of farmers and consumers can enjoy the benefits of a fruitful partnership.” This message is repeated in the statement by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) that: “remunerative prices and higher incomes for cocoa farmers are an essential element within the context of sustainability…” The Fairtrade Foundation Cocoa commodity briefing (2011) tells us that: over 90% of the world’s cocoa is grown on 5.5 million small farms. Many cocoa farmers and workers are among the 2.1 billion people living on US$2 a day.

YES, MASA AMAJARO?

I would suggest that since Armajaro began operating in 1998, you must have during that time contributed to the production and reproduction of poverty among cocoa farmers and, without doubt, your claim that “Nicko (Debenham) has 25 years of experience in West African cocoa” is an assurance that he has significant practice in, or cohabitation with, extortion of value from black cocoa farmers for more than a generation. Further, when article 1 of the memorandum states that this cocoa agreement “shall operate for a period of 50 years…” and article 4.2 commits the government “to not enter into any agreement with any other national, regional, or international cocoa distributor other than the company for the purposes of offering any licenses or concessions of any kind in the area of cocoa production and sales,” then this agreement cancels out the gains of 50 years of Caribbean independence and integration.

Armajaro has forced a crisis-ridden government and a progressive prime minister to hand over each year 7,000 acres of farmers land, 10,000 full time units of labour power, up to 10,000 tons of cocoa beans into Armajaros hands until the 10th of August of the year 2061. This new colonizing Armajaro then has the clever mandate to be the only regional (and international) negotiator of our cocoa products- our cocoa government! Even on the national market, not until 2061 will farmers be able to think about new artisanal or other developments in cocoa, cooperation with Grenada. Just these 2 articles of the agreement consign you Armajaro to the downheap of history, to the era of Francis Drake, Elizabeth Stewart, (or was she Tudor?) and one general Abercrombie. Our children today don’t even recognize these names.

But permit me, Armajaro, to refer briefly to another section of the memorandum. The agreement of the 12th August, 2011 in article 4.1 authorizes Armajaro “to buy cocoa beans (in both wet and dry form)…” but since then, and notably in a December 2011 radio presentation, the company has declared unilaterally that it will buy only “wet” beans. Ms Ruth Holloway of Armajaro was clear. Armajaro alone, no one else, had the capacity or could develop the expertise to ferment and dry Vincentian cocoa beans for the international market. Thus, the value chain for the cocoa beans stopped at the edge of the farmer’s field where she/he stripped the beans from the pod. Incidentally, correspondence from the cocoa information center of ICCO alerts us to the fact that there is no known country where farmers sell wet cocoa beans to an international trader. Evidently, the price for “the fine and flavor” feature of Vincentian cocoa, which is enhanced by post-harvest fermenting and drying would not be paid to the farmer, but to Armajaro. Such a backward division of labour will make the Vincentian cocoa industry unsustainable, whatever the rhetoric elsewhere. It cannot pay the farmer.

Dear Armajaro, please enter the 21st century of Vincentian life. The hardship we endure at present has not made us beggars and slaves. Scrap that memorandum signed under duress by our prime minister and come again. With respect, Oscar Allen.