The Ministry of Blue and Green Economy, Agriculture, and National Food Security now has an additional tool to assist in data management and strategic planning for the cocoa sector with the recent handing over of a cocoa financial model presented to the Ministry at the start of a training workshop organized by the Cocoa Cluster Development Project of Dominica and held on Thursday 17th June 2021 for extension staff, data and information officers, finance agents, farmers and other cocoa stakeholders who will be putting this financial tool to use.
Dr. Kyra Paul, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, received the document from Francine Baron, CEO of the Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD), the organization which developed the model.
In mentioning the government’s Cocoa Rehabilitation Project, Dr. Paul pointed that a Cocoa Coordinator has been employed and plants are being propagated to meet annual targets of 25,000 and increases in acreage within the sector which has seen “small but promising growth.”
In her remarks at the training workshop, Baron indicated CREAD’s satisfaction in developing this model. “CREAD was pleased to have been able to play a part in helping farmers understand the underlying economics of cocoa production. We were able to develop a financial model that provides the farmer with an accurate assessment of expected yield and profit based on their output and outlay of capital and resources,” she said.
“Our hope is that by providing farmers with a clearer understanding of all the cost inputs, as well as giving them a view of potential revenues, they can plan appropriately, manage the investments necessary to establish cocoa as a viable and financially rewarding crop, and undertake the long term financial planning that is an essential part of their resilience,” she adds.
The Cocoa Cluster was founded in 2019. Funded by Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility (CCPF) with the Dominica Export Import Agency (DEXIA) as the implementing Agency, the Cluster aims to build on the foundation laid by the Government’s Cocoa Rehabilitation Project and seeks to further drive the expansion and development of this promising sector. The cocoa financial model also aligns with the Cluster’s focus on change management and data management two of its five areas of improvement, the others being pre-and post-harvest management, labeling and marketing, and product transformation and development.
Wayne Elliott, Coordinator, Productivity and Innovation in Caribbean Firms and Clusters at CCPF, highlighted the organisation’s goals to support firms to “grow, compete, innovate and to enter new sectors and markets and to promote an environment that enables innovation and growth.”
Cocoa Cluster Manager, Taletha Laudat stressed on the importance of “de-risking in agriculture investments for improved efficiency and profits, and how critical analytics, innovation and sustainable financing tools can improve the competiveness of the cocoa industry.”
DEXIA General Manager Paula Platsko expressed further satisfaction with the exercise by stating, “We are quite pleased with CREAD’s support of the Project, and their agreement to develop the Cocoa Financial Model upon the request of our Executing Agency, Compete Caribbean. This model aims to support our national resilience objectives, including economic thinking in cocoa farming decisions.”