Leticia’s Story

The process is labour intensive but rewarding. “I love my chocolate!” she says.

Leticia hasn’t just set about transforming cocoa production in her own community, she is determined to make it a viable business for other women, particularly in rural areas.

Earlier, she recalls, “I saw that those women who were following their husbands, they don’t get anything from the farms. They will do all the work, but the men take the money, and their lives were not in the best way. So, I started gathering the women.”

That “gathering” turned into Cocoa Mmaa, Ghana’s first female-only co-operative that’s empowering women in villages to follow in Leticia’s entrepreneurial footsteps. Together, they’re looking to expand their project. They want to show the world that it’s possible to produce fair and sustainable chocolate that promotes women’s financial autonomy and is free from child labour. In doing this, Leticia and Cocoa Mmaa are creating opportunities for generations of girls long into the future.

As founder of Cocoa Mmaa, Leticia shares what she has learned herself about cocoa growing and chocolate making with the co-operative’s 600-strong membership.

Despite cocoa prices skyrocketing on the world market, cocoa farmers are not seeing the benefits. Many are giving up, because producing cocoa is hard work for little yield. Instead, farmers are leasing their land to illegal gold miners or switching to rubber. “We are losing a lot of cocoa farms because of the price,” says Leticia.

The climate crisis is also afflicting cocoa production. "The climate change has immensely affected the production of cocoa,” she says. “Because of the hot weather the cocoa seedlings that are transplanted quickly die. The rain is either too much or the sun is too much."

Leticia is taking her message about cocoa pricing globally. "There is the need for the cocoa price to be increased so that we can favourably compete with the small-scale mining,” she says. Most importantly, cocoa producers need to have a fairer share of the profits.

"I am telling the big companies that if they don't increase the price of cocoa, and if they don't improve the living income of the cocoa producers, their companies are going to be in danger in the nearest future,” she says.

Leticia is working on her farm, practicing sustainable agricultural techniques like agroforestry, organic fertilizer and natural fermentation, and drying of her beans.

Oxfam is committed to supporting transformative projects like this across the world. We work with people like Leticia, who are the backbone of their communities, and whose steady commitment yields long-term results.

Through Gifts in Wills, we can continue to support Leticia’s efforts, so that future generations of women in Ghana can build on her remarkable work. By supporting Oxfam with a gift in your Will, you can make sure that Leticia’s of the future – and you – stay in the fight for generations to come.