Abstract
Cocoa farming in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) faces several challenges due to its poor socioeconomic context, the adverse impact of climate changes, the complex and limited access to global value chains, and worldwide demand pressure for higher cocoa quality and productivity. This exploratory research investigates potential pathways to a more sustainable organic cocoa (OC) production in STP by mapping the perceptions of the stakeholders involved in its value chain. Qualitative interviews, field observation, and focus group discussions were applied to understand how sustainability dimensions, drivers, impacts, and challenges of OC are perceived and how these three dimensions can be improved and balanced. The gathered perceptions are rather diverse, reflecting the stakeholders’ position and knowledge of the specific contexts and processes. Producers do not perceive how governance is adopting new organizational structures or practices that allow for an effective sustainability improvement. Most stakeholders recognize that market-related factors drive the sustainability adoption and that financing-related constraints challenge their wide implementation. There are trade-offs and power asymmetries in the OC value chain, which manifest differently, due to the governance approaches, processes, overall regulations, and training of producers. An alignment of perceptions and activities as well as a stronger cooperation between cooperatives, private firms, and public institutions is strongly recommended.
Highlights
Agriculture, agribusiness, and food markets are becoming prime sustainable development areas in many countries
The findings of this work expose disparities in the perceptions obtained from the stakeholders contacted according to their experiences within the scope of the role they play in their respective link of the value chain
The sustainability pathway implies collaborative work between multiple stakeholders involved in a holistic perspective, aiming for the development of an inclusive strategy that can create benefit for all the players of the organic cocoa value chain [33]
Summary
Agriculture, agribusiness, and food markets are becoming prime sustainable development areas in many countries. The cocoa value chain sustainability is increasing as a global concern due to the fact that a large part of the used land is obtained through deforestation, which has a huge impact on local biodiversity and social cohesion [1]. These are foremost threats to the environment, which have already taken place on a major scale in cocoa-producing countries [2]. Its production is primarily concentrated in the tropics (Africa), which represent two-thirds of the world production and where Côte d’Ivoire is the main producing country with around 40% of the world production [7]. In STP, this agricultural commodity plays an important role in the country’s exports and is a vital
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
