Most of the forty million people who rely on cocoa for their livelihood live in severe poverty. This is because the global trading system is not set up to benefit those at the bottom of the production chain – those who do the most physical labor to produce your chocolate bar.
Divine Chocolate is different. It’s the first farmer-owned chocolate company in the world. This means that the 45,000 cocoa farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana elect representatives to Divine’s board of directors, have a say in how their cocoa is produced and marketed, and receive dividends from Divine’s profits.
This is in addition to the fair price and additional Fair Trade premium that is invested in the farming communities for projects that to build wells, fund schools, and provide medical clinics for their communities.
In this way, the members of Kuapa Kokoo are involved in the business decisions from “bean to bar,” setting a powerful example for companies across the globe.
