Samoa Cocoa Industry Development Initiative Review
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) provides development funding to Samoa for a number of activities within it’s agricultural programme in the Pacific. One of these programmes is for activities to support sustainable growth of the cocoa industry through increased investment. In particular, the activity aims to increase returns to cocoa farmers, as well as to increase the volume of cocoa exports through sustainable production and quality management base. FCG New Zealand has been commissioned to carry out a project review on the Samoa Cocoa Industry Development Initiative which is funded through the Pacific Transformational Fund. The Activity commenced on July 2017 and will run for five years, due to be completed in June 2022. The Activity is intended to be industry-led, driven by the identified needs of the cocoa industry stakeholders in Samoa and will provide opportunities to enable growth of the private sector from growers to cocoa supply chains.
The four outputs of the Samoa Cocoa Industry Development Initiative are to:
- Establish the Samoa Cocoa Industry Association;
- Establish a nursery grafter;
- On-farm training; and
- A post-harvest processing development.
The long term goals of this Activity is to increase value and volume of Samoa cocoa exports year on year; and increase financial returns for smallholder cocoa growers.