Case study: Organic cocoa farming in Solomon Islands
A shared value case study by World Vision
The contents of this case study were presented by Sandra Carvajal at a session on using innovative financing for impact at the 2020 Australasian Aid Conference. Sandra is the Senior Advisor for Tri-Sector Partnering at World Vision.
Cocoa in the Pacific was once a thriving industry and a significant source of income for thousands of families. In an effort to increase cocoa farmers’ incomes in Solomon Islands and ensure sustainable social impact, World Vision partnered with Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands (KPSI) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) in 2019.
This partnership aims to diversify KPSI’s product offering to include cocoa, leveraging existing processes and infrastructure for coconut oil and other coconut-based products. It also aims to support cocoa farmers with solar drying, training and organic certification to boost their income.
The model: a win-win for communities and business
This initiative focuses on strengthening smallholder farmer access to buyers and export markets across ten communities in Makira Province, while enhancing the processing, quality and quantity of the organic solar-dried cocoa they are producing. Together, these components will help sustain farmers’ market access beyond the life of the project and increase their earnings potential.
KPSI, a social enterprise working in the Solomon Islands since 2004, will diversify its core business and start a boutique organic cocoa division with opportunity to scale to other areas. KPSI will integrate cocoa and small business training, processing, logistics and purchasing into its operating model, extending the social benefit it provides to coconut farmers to cocoa farmers.
This partnership aims to diversify KPSI’s product offering to include cocoa, leveraging existing processes and infrastructure for coconut oil and other coconut-based products. It also aims to support cocoa farmers with solar drying, training and organic certification to boost their income.
Read the full case study to learn more about the partnership and World Vision’s approach to cross-sector partnerships
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