Launching of the Public-Private Partnership Week
Kraft Foods has signed a deal with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to improve the lives of cocoa farmers.
United States Agency for International Development and the US food giant on October 17th launched the agency’s Public-Private Partnership Week to raise incomes for 10,000 small-scale cocoa farmers in the Dominican Republic.
The five-year partnership aims to increase yields and quality, promote production of fair trade cacao and encourage more young adults to work along the cocoa supply chain, the company said.
Public-private partnerships like this one are a key part of USAID’s development strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it benefits all the stakeholders
, said Mark Feierstein, USAID’s assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Small farmers earn more money, businesses have access to a higher-quality product, and USAID raises extra resources for development
.
United States Agency for International Development and Kraft plan to use this new agreement for future collaboration in cocoa-growing communities across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Kraft buys much of the product used in its Green & Black’s brand from the Dominican Republic.
