Demystifying the Cocoa Sector in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

This major study aims to contribute to the cocoa sector’s body of knowledge and provide a solid evidence base to test common assumptions and beliefs. 

The research covers issues such as household demographics, food security and nutrition, and crop choices and crop diversification. Specific to cocoa, the study investigates why households grow cocoa, and analyses the major aspects of cocoa production and marketing. Household wealth, income and poverty is also assessed, and further disaggregated in a cluster analysis. The study also looks at intra-household dynamics which are brought together in a gender chapter.

Fieldwork was carried out in the cocoa growing regions of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire in late 2016 and early 2017. A random sample of approximately 1500 households surveys were collected in each country. This was complemented by 37 focus group discussions in each country.

To advance the sector’s access to data and knowledge, the researchers have made the dataset available for download on this page. We encourage other researchers, governments, companies and NGOs to make use of it in their own programmes and policy development.

Download the complete report, or individual chapters below.