Nestlé cocoa programme sees success despite price hikes

It was only recently that cocoa prices began to fall. Before this, it has been quite a year for the beloved bean, with prices reaching record highs in January in the face of pressures from climate change and disease. Even now, they’re still high.

Even in this environment, Nestlé’s Income Accelerator programme has seen success.

What is Nestlé’s Income Accelerator Programme?Nestlé’s Income Accelerator programme, based in Côte d’Ivoire, is an initiative that aims to help cocoa farmers increase their incomes.

The programme provides €100 incentives to farmers for four key activities. Firstly, they are incentivised to take on new agricultural techniques, such as pruning, in order to improve yields; secondly, to take part in agroforestry programmes; thirdly, to develop additional sources of income, such as running a business; and lastly, to enrol their children at school.

They can get an additional €100 for completing all of these things, meaning that the total reaches €500. After two years, this falls to €250.

The current phase of the programme was launched at the beginning of 2022.

How much progress has the programme made?Despite the pressures on cocoa prices, the programme has made significant progress since its inception.

An independent evaluation by the KIT Institute, a non-profit, revealed that in 2024 those in the programme saw a yield increase of 18% higher than farmers not in the programme.

This has meant that their net income has risen 15% more than other farmers.

Under the programme, the amount of children enrolled in school increased by 7%, from 81% in 2022 to 88% in 2024.

Farms in the programme, according to Nestlé, are also healthier, due to agricultural methods such as pruning, weeding, pest control and shade management. Since the start of the programme, Nestlé has also added composting to these methods.

The programme is due to expand further, including into neighbouring country Ghana, which is second only to Côte d’Ivoire in terms of levels of cocoa production.

How have cocoa prices affected profits?Rising cocoa prices have not gone unnoticed by farmers. For example, net profit has increased by 21% compared to farms not in the programme, which according to Nestlé has been accelerated by rising cocoa prices.

While farmgate prices also rose, due to much of cocoa produced being bought by forward contracts – in other words, before the price rises – they did not go up as significantly.

Nevertheless, for the 2023/2024 season, the weighted farmgate price was 23% higher than it was for the previous season.