Travelling beans

Small beans from cocoa plants are flown all over the world.  They are mixed with many other ingredients and packaged up to appeal to buyers.  Then they are sold in millions of supermarkets, stalls and newsagents all over the world, in the form of chocolate bars.

Adeline has come to find out more about cocoa.  After all, her country is the largest producer in the world!

Good for the heart

Adeline interviews Amari, an agro-economist engineer for the Federation of Cocoa Commerce. He is in charge of the management plan for cocoa and coffee in Ivory Coast.  Amari explains that the raw cocoa bean is good for the heart.

Over a quarter (around six million Ivorians) are involved in growing cocoa beans, which are extremely important to the country and its people.  Training sessions are given to help workers increase their harvests.

Plantation owner

Could he really be the plantation owner of one of the largest cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast?

He doesn’t look wealthy – that's because he is not.   Sat in modest surroundings, Adeline interviews him in his home and finds out more about his life and what it is to be a plantation owner.

Plantation owners are not wealthy people.  The cocoa industry suffers from under-investment and it is threatened by diseases.  Farmers are unable to afford the regular spraying which would protect their cocoa crops.

High taxes are imposed on farmers, and while he has enough money to feed his children, the plantation owner tells Adeline, there is nothing to spare.

Working in a cocoa farm is not what he would want for his children.  He followed his father’s footsteps and now owns this farm, but he wants more for his own children.

But with many young people dreaming of becoming lawyers, doctors and so on, the future of the cocoa plantations is uncertain.