Over the last decade the importance of social, environmental and economical issues in the cocoa sector has increased considerably. As a consequence, cocoa certification has been placed at the centre of an international debate amongst the cocoa community.
At this moment, there seems to be no consensus on whether certification is positive for farmers or not. Certification is considered by some as an adequate tool to promote sustainability in the cocoa value chain and to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers. Other actors involved in the sector seem to be less optimistic on the net benefits that certification offers at farm level and highlight the burden that it can bring in terms of required investments.
In order to provide more clarity to this debate, KPMG was commissioned by ICCO to conduct a study on the costs and benefits of certification, comprising both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis which aim to elicit the costs, net benefits, advantages and disadvantages of cocoa certification.