“Fine Flavor” Chocolate Standards can offer a sweet deal for Smallholder Farmers

Cacao (the key ingredient of chocolate, also known as cocoa) is essential to the livelihoods of 40–50 million people globally, including over 5 million smallholders in tropical, developing countries.

In the paper “Who Defines Fine Chocolate? The Construction of Global Cocoa Quality Standards from Latin America” published in The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, researchers put forth that the ongoing debates over the content of cacao standards and their future governance structure reflect broader disputes over who will profit from or pay the most for superior quality cocoa, which is the fastest growing segment of the global cocoa market.