The tool will help improve the process of payment for cocoa farmers in Ecuador.
Recently, the United Nations (UN) issued a statement where it informed about its new project to combat poverty using blockchain technology to support cocoa farmers and elaborate chocolate bars. Both things at the same time.
The idea is to sell a chocolate bar called The Other Bar, which will have a unique feature: it is a method to make a special donation. It is known that at the back of the package of chocolate it will have a code. Using it, the buyer can access a platform to make a direct donation to cocoa farmers in countries such as Ecuador. Additionally, the buyer may receive discounts in the next purchases of chocolate.
Guido Van Staveren, who founded the FairChain Company, one of the main collaborating companies of the project, said that although there is a humanitarian goal, which is to combat poverty and precarious conditions of farmers in countries like Ecuador, it is also a project that will seek to boost local businesses using innovative technologies such as blockchain. This is something that in the past was kind of difficult to do.
“This is an experiment about what we can do to boost conscious consumption towards impact objectives. The idea is to use technology to influence consumer behavior, and basically convert each product into a capitalist impact engine”, explained the executive.
The Dutch company FairChain took this strategic alliance to strengthen technology and diversify its branches. This joint work was conducted thanks to the initiative proposed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It is an innovative idea in the chocolate production sector.
As a first step, the project culminated a somewhat limited shipment which will be responsible for evaluating the market and its addition to it. It is known that the first shipment had more than 20,000 units of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, which will correspond as a pilot phase both for the sale and for the collection of donations.
This important initiative arises due to the precarious conditions in which cocoa farmers work in Ecuador. According to data collected, the grower only receives 3% of the sales of the cocoa sold as a product for chocolate, becoming one of the least paid jobs among those engaged in the agricultural sector. In most cases, these people do not receive a salary commensurate to meet their basic needs.
This initiative also promoted by the businessman Van Staveren would reduce the precarious situation of cocoa farmers in Ecuador, fighting in some way, the poverty experienced by these farmers.
Currently, in the South American country, the cocoa cultivated by these farmers is sold to chocolate manufacturing companies at US $ 1,200 per metric ton. Now, with this tool developed FairChain, although it does not eradicate the problem at all, it would improve its situation helping cocoa farmers receive an estimated of $ 2,400 per ton.
By María Rodríguez
