Examination of Witnesses (Questions 120
- 125)
TUESDAY 13 MARCH 2007
MR MONJURUL
HAQUE, MS
ERICA KYERE,
MS SAFIA
MINNEY AND
MS SOPHI
TRANCHELL
Q120 John Battle: Just to follow
that through, did I catch it right that the farmers in the co-operative
have gone up from 1,000 to 45,000 members, is that right?
Ms Kyere: Yes, that is right.
Q121 John Battle: As well as the
money they get from the direct selling of the cocoa, what happens
to the money from the share in Divine, which you get from that
47%; does that go into the building of schools, or how is that
used?
Ms Kyere: So far, the building
of the schools has been done with the Fairtrade premiums which
we receive. I think this is the only way that Divine works.
Ms Tranchell: We have not yet
distributed the premiums.
Q122 John Battle: To take another
example, we did look at Ethiopia and coffee, and I think what
was surprising was that the reach of the co-operatives into the
villages was not as deep, let me put it that way, and did not
include anywhere near 45,000 members, in one case, but the impression
you gave was that the co-operative served everybody. Are there
any benefits which other families or communities get, which do
not belong to the co-operative and Kuapa Kokoo, does it spread
into them, or are you recruiting new members, to get 45,000 up
to 100,000?
Ms Kyere: There are two million
cocoa farmers in Ghana, because Ghana produces a lot of cocoa,
so every village in Ghana is involved. There are six cocoa regions
in Ghana, so in all these six cocoa regions there are cocoa farmers.
If we would drill a borehole in this village, it does not go just
to our farmers, because, as a co-operative, you should have concern
for everybody, so the borehole is for the whole village, not just
for the farmers, so all of them tend to benefit from the social
infrastructure that we do in the villages.
Q123 John Battle: To get the cocoa
to the marketplace, to get it to chocolate factories, infrastructure
is a big challenge. What are the obstacles which Kuapa Kokoo faces,
to expanding its business? What are the obstacles in the way,
is it infrastructure, is it transport, is it finance, what are
the big issues?
Ms Kyere: All of what you say,
because we are operating in five regions in Ghana, all in the
middle belt, it is the rainforest, there is a lot of rain, so
roads are not very good. It means that we have to buy a lot of
vehicles and do extensive travelling. When the cocoa is produced
you need to cart the cocoa from the village up to a place we call
a depot, that may be in a city, before you can take it to the
ports, so we face all these problems and we do not have internet
facilities; if we had them I am sure we would be able to communicate
with a lot of people. The telephones in some of these villages
do not work, so we have all those barriers. That is why it is
very necessary that DFID helps us in a lot of ways.
Q124 John Battle: Are you waiting
for the Government to build the roads, or will you be funding
the roads from the income that you get; how are you addressing
the problem?
Ms Kyere: Actually, PPP[4]
have built some bridges but we cannot build roads because it is
very expensive.
Chairman: That has been very helpful,
from all of you.
Q125 Joan Ruddock: I have a different
question, it does not follow directly, but I observe that both
of you are women and I wonder whether you think that gender has
played any part in the success of this enterprise, and to what
extent there is leadership amongst women in the villages?
Ms Kyere: Maybe it has; yes, I
think so. I also have a cocoa background and I realise that in
the villages most of the time women are relegated to the background.
The co-operative has an aim to empower women; that is the basic
thing that the co-operative does, and we have actually got in
there, from the soft looms that we are giving to the women to
petty trade, telling them that they can do things better even
than the men have been able to. Last year, at the AGM, which Sophi
was talking about, they elected at the national level 20 executives
and 12 of them are now women, and that is a very good thing. At
the moment, the Ghanaian Government has passed the Domestic Violence
Bill, so I think women are actually recognised in Ghana now and
I think that has really helped.
Chairman: You will not have the experience
we had in Ethiopia of going to an organisation, which was a women's
organisation, in which we were addressed entirely by men. Can
I thank all of you for coming along and giving us that insight,
which is extremely helpful. Can I repeat what I said before: if,
on reflection, you have further thoughts about particular ways
in which DFID could help, whether it is practical or financial,
while the inquiry is ongoing, please feel free to contact our
staff, because it will help us ask the questions of our ministers
and formulate our report. We are here with an open mind, interested
in how fair trade works, wanting to know how we can improve it
and how we can deliver it and what the role is that DFID could
play. So if you have further ideas please let us have them, we
would be very happy to receive them from you. Thank you very much
for coming in.
4 PPP Network Ghana Road Sector, a public-private
partnership initiative. Back
|
