A New Route for Quality Cacao: Ghana

Large cacao pods, ripe and yellow.

The seeds inside are cocoa beans, the key ingredient to everyone's favorite treat, chocolate.

Cocoa farming is one of the main industries for the Republic of Ghana in west Africa.

The country exports around two billion US dollars' worth of product every year.

From a population of 31 million, some four million people work in industries linked to cocoa beans.

But, many cocoa farmers don't receive a decent income.

It's a hard living and some earn less than a dollar a day.

Four years ago, one person from Japan embarked on a journey to change this situation: Taguchi Ai.

The poverty I found when I arrived here
was far worse than I'd imagined.

As someone who'd always enjoyed
delicious chocolate...

...it was very painful to discover I'd
been involved in such a terrible system.

Today, Taguchi works with local farmers to improve the quality of their beans, and sells high-end chocolate made from those beans back in Japan.

The profits are returned to the farmers.

She created so many jobs to
feed so many people in Amanfrom.

My friends, my brothers.

Taguchi's chocolates have found success as Valentine's gifts at a major Tokyo department store.

Her work has even inspired some customers.

I was so moved.

The first step I can take is to
come here and buy her chocolate!

This is Taguchi's journey as she works alongside Ghanaians to enrich village lives through quality cocoa.

A three-hour drive from Ghana's capital Accra is the town of Mpraeso.

It's one of seven cacao-growing regions in the country's south.

Amanfrom village is home to over 2,000 people in around 500 households.

Almost everyone here is a cocoa farmer.

The village has electricity, but no running water.

A well dug four years ago is the residents' only water source.

Taguchi Ai from Japan is focused on improving the lives of cocoa farmers in this village.

I like the smell!

One influential figure in the community is Kofi, who works with Taguchi and interprets for her.

They've come to check the condition of the drying beans.

First I want to say thank you to him.

And also I want to know how many cocoa beans did he get in one year?

- Four bags.
- In one year? Okay.

Taguchi has traveled between Ghana and Japan countless times since 2018, trying to raise cocoa farmers' income.

The village leader is grateful for her efforts.

We're very happy she visits us.
She's part of the community.

The cacao groves are in the forest surrounding the village.

Cacao is interesting. The tree
produces fruit which looks like this.

The chocolate we eat is made from
the seeds of the fruit that grow inside.

Cacao only grows in hot, humid tropical regions near the equator.

The trees are thought to originate from central and southern America.

Europe began importing the beans around 1600, using them in a nutritious drink, and demand for cacao slowly spread to other regions.

Wholesale farming of cacao in Ghana took place under British colonial rule in the 19th century.

Cacao was valuable at the time and the British built farms to profit from trade.

Following Ghana's independence in 1957, cacao continued to be a major industry for the country.

It produced around 800,000 tons in 2020, second only to Cote d'Ivoire.

But what inspired Taguchi to work alongside Ghana's cocoa farmers?

Born in 1998, since the age of three, her great-grandfather would give her delicious chocolate whenever they met.

Taguchi fell in love with chocolate, finding that enjoying it before a school test or a piano concert helped her relax and perform well.

As she grew older, she began to read up on her favorite sweet.

I did some research and found that
lots of cocoa is made in Ghana.

But there were also a lot of sources
that talked about child labor.

The idea that kids my age were
being forced to work like that....

I really felt like I had to get up
and do something.

At 19, on her first summer vacation from college, Taguchi traveled to Ghana to find out more about cocoa farmers.

She looked for cocoa farming villages near the capital of Accra, where she could find English interpreters, and came across Amanfrom.

She asked Kofi to interpret for her and began talking to farmers.

I was raving about chocolate,
but there was very little reaction.

I wondered why and it turns out
chocolate isn't sold in the village.

It's a product for rich people in the capital.

Some had never eaten any.
So I wanted everyone to try some.

Taguchi made chocolate on the spot and had everyone try it.

People's eyes lit up at the sweet taste of their own cacao.

The villagers all seemed happy and there was no sign of the child labor she had worried about.

That kind of forced labor has fallen sharply.

Ghana has such bountiful nature.

I was relieved that people could provide for
themselves by growing their own food.

But Taguchi was also faced with other realities she hadn't been aware of.

I saw someone crying their eyes out.

Their mother had had malaria
and couldn't pay for medicine.

She passed away. This wasn't a rare
occurrence; I heard this again and again.

The value of cocoa beans is at the mercy of the international market and has been kept low for many years.

That means cocoa farmers earn very little.

The villagers do not have access to good education, and hardly anyone has the knowledge or technology to improve productivity.

Taguchi wondered if she could sell the village's beans in Japan to raise the farmers' income.

She visited several Japanese chocolatiers to find out.

They said Ghanaian beans were inconsistent.
They weren't worth paying more for.

It was frustrating and upsetting.

Those cocoa beans grew
in such a rich jungle.

To me, they seemed like
an absolute miracle.

It's the yellow and orange house there.

This is Taguchi's workshop and home while she's in the village.

Taguchi believes in the potential of Amanfrom's cacao.

In 2020, she set up a social enterprise between Japan and the village.

Its goal is to raise and stabilize the quality of cocoa beans, and sell high-end chocolate made from those beans in Japan.

The first step to producing good cocoa beans is fermentation.

The seeds are wrapped in banana leaves and left to ferment for a week.

It's a critical process: the aroma of the beans settles during fermentation, and this has a major effect on the flavor of the final chocolate.

Taguchi was initially unfamiliar with fermentation.

She visited Japanese sake breweries and Indonesian cocoa farms to study fermentation techniques for producing good beans.

Cocoa beans must be stirred regularly
to maintain an even temperature.

That helps them all ferment evenly.

I explained this and this is what
the farmers do now.

Once the fermentation process is complete, the beans are dried under the sun for anywhere between three to seven days.

The next step is sorting the beans.

Yeah, black beans and then little, small beans, and some cracked ones.

We cannot have any.

For this one, it's very big and brown.

Very good ones.

The beans must be sorted by size so that they roast evenly.

If there's too much variance, the larger beans will come out undercooked, while the smaller ones will burn, damaging the overall quality.

It's been four years since Taguchi's first visit to Amanfrom.

She's fallen in love with village life, and even dreams of moving here.

For this skirt, I bought in Accra but it was Ghanian size.

- It's a Ghanian size?
- Yes, it was very long so I cut it.

- You cut it?
- By my scissors.

She wears local clothes, eats local food, and lives the local lifestyle.

It's important to Taguchi that she feels equal with everyone in the village.

This giant African snail is for eating.

It's become a favorite of Taguchi's.

One key figure in Taguchi's work is Kofi, who interprets for her and leads the farmers she works with.

They smell good.

But not much sun recently.

The color's changed, yeah.

Kofi encouraged other villagers to join Taguchi's project.

There are now over 50 farms on board.

Last year, he opened a bar for his colleagues to relax after work.

The food is made by his partner, Rose.

She has a 3-year-old daughter.

When Taguchi is in Ghana, she has most of her meals with Kofi's family.

- It's made from tomato, onion-
- Yes, onion, ginger, garlic.

- Wow, I like garlic.
- A little spicy.

It smells very good.

Tonight's dinner is grilled tilapia, caught in the nearby river.

Kofi learnt English during his time working in the capital, Accra.

Inspired by Taguchi's goal of enriching the villagers' lives, he became the first farmer to work with her.

He had previously been her host father, and had provided her with a room and meals.

I was dreaming of making Amanfrom
very prosperous.

She's given me so much experience
with cocoa.

What I don't know about cocoa,
she is now teaching me.

My dreams are moving up.

Villagers gather at Kofi's bar.

They hold a welcome party every time Taguchi visits from Japan.

Taguchi faced another major problem in using Amanfrom's cocoa in her Japanese chocolate.

She wasn't able to buy the beans directly.

Cocoa beans are considered a key export.

A government organization called the Cocoa Board handles all trade.

Most beans are sold to the Cocoa Board by weight, regardless of quality.

The board pools beans from every region together, then sells the beans to trading companies with export licenses.

Those beans are then sent around the world.

Taguchi can't guarantee her Japanese enterprise will receive beans from Amanfrom.

So she came up with a new approach.

Taguchi asked the board to categorize the high-quality beans from her farmers separately.

A Japanese trading firm buys those beans and passes them on to Taguchi.

She then uses the beans to make high-quality chocolate, sending profit from sales back to the farmers.

This has increased the farmers' income by 20 to 40%.

The system was developed with the help of Taguchi's friend Takahashi Kanaru, another chocolate lover.

She works at the trading firm in question and helped work things out within the company and set up negotiations with the Cocoa Board.

Now, Amanfrom's cocoa farmers have higher incomes and more confidence in their trade.

Kofi created a special cooperative of 15 farmers.

They hold study sessions on cocoa harvesting, and pool their money to buy antimalarial medications, helping to improve life for the whole village.

She created so many jobs to
feed so many people in Amanfrom.

My friends, my brothers.
That's why I feel very happy!

Taguchi's social enterprise runs its chocolate workshop in Tokyo, back in Japan.

A friend helped set up the company and renovated his home to build the studio.

This is full-time staff member and chocolatier, Sasaki Toshiko.

She creates her own unique chocolates from the Amanfrom cocoa.

Everyone can help the farmers in Ghana
by eating chocolate made here in Japan!

I wanted to be part of that vision.
To provide our customers with excellent chocolate.

The brand is called "Maaha," the local word for "Hello."

A basic bar costs $5.50 for 20 grams.

It's not too sweet, and the flavor of the cocoa beans is front and center.

The workshop also sells chocolate bars with toppings such as figs and berries.

But their most popular product is a chocolate terrine.

Every mouthful is an explosion of intense cocoa flavor.

The enterprise has no retail outlets, selling exclusively online.

Taguchi uses social media to promote what's happening in the village.

She hopes customers take an interest in the lives of Ghana's cocoa farmers.

February 2022.

Taguchi's firm has opened a stall at the Valentine's event space of a major department store.

The store saw her social media and reached out to support the enterprise.

They're doing wonderful work.
So I came for their chocolate.

I wanted to support them.

Taguchi's mission to improve the lives of cocoa farmers is being propelled forward by chocolate lovers in Japan.

Taguchi spends several months in Amanfrom every year.

The farmers come to her for advice on a range of issues.

Martin, hi!

- How are you?
- I'm great!

Take a look at this.

Ants killed it because
we don't have pesticides.

If we had money
we could buy some.

If we use it during the rains
we can drive off the ants.

Cacao plants are pollinated by ants, mosquitos, and other small insects carrying pollen.

But during the rainy season, ants climb the trees and eat their flowers and pods.

They turn black and rot.

A well-timed spray of pesticide can help mitigate the damage, but it's too expensive for the farmers.

Ghana's rainy season lasts seven months, from April to October.

It's a serious problem the farmers grapple with every year.

Harvesting doesn't begin until October.

The farmers have little to do, and no income while the rains last.

Many of the women make traditional pottery to sell at the market and help with the budget.

But since they too must dry in the sunshine, they're also at a standstill during much of the year.

They struggle with money every rainy season.

They ask if I can find them any work,
no matter what kind.

Taguchi is currently setting up a new project to provide cocoa farmers with a stable income throughout the year.

She's building a chocolate workshop in Amanfrom.

It will cost 28,000 dollars to build, which Taguchi was able to raise through crowd-funding in Japan.

She also sourced the machinery needed to crush the beans, along with ovens, and a fridge.

The plan is for the farmers to learn how to make chocolate themselves.

The workspace will be owned by the village, and Kofi will act as CEO.

- This factory is very important.
- Yes.

For us.

- Me, alone!
- No, no! For me too.

- For you it's very very very very-
- Yes.

Important.

The chocolate made here will be bought by Taguchi and sold in Japan.

She plans to pay three dollars per kilogram, more than three times the price of cocoa beans.

It will provide work during the rains and off-season.

The farmers have high hopes.

By helping the parents,
they can send their children to school.

They can feed them very well.

Everyone will be working to bring in cocoa
and make chocolate ourselves.

The cocoa is helping the community.
That's what we are doing.

Right now, I'm only working with Amanfrom.

But I want it to become a model that
can be expanded to other regions.

I hope we can grow as an organization
that supports cocoa farmers.

October, 2022.

The factory is complete, and the first forays into chocolate making have begun.

The locally made chocolate is already producing dividends.

Taguchi and the cocoa farmers are continuing their mission to set the village on a new route to prosperity.