The Samoa Chamber of Commerce has run a series of cocoa coaching workshops targeting youth and women farmers on both Upolu and Savai’i in partnership with the UNDP Samoa.

A total of 32 youth cocoa farmers were selected to participate in the final workshop under the COVID-19 Preparedness and Recovery: Diversification of the Economic Sector in Samoa Project which is funded by the Embassy of Japan. 

This is a 12-month project that started in late March last year and will end on 30 September this year. The participants completed a two-and-a-half-day training which kicked off last week at the LAVA Hotel conference room.

The workshop intended to bring together a final group of young cocoa farmers, all of whom have participated in one or two of the training workshops that were conducted over the years. These participants were selected as they were seen as the most engaging and enthusiastic of the group and had well established cocoa farms on Upolu and Savai’i.

The participants, including 10 female farmers, were able to absorb knowledge and experience from local commercial cocoa farmers, hear about loan schemes (Samoa Commercial Bank and Development Bank of Samoa) and grant schemes (SBH & Samoa Agriculture & Fisheries Productivity and Marketing Project under Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries). 

The workshop included site visits to the Samoa Koko Industry Association’s cocoa nursery at Afia, SERENDI COCO’s cocoa processing facilities and a demonstration of chemical management by representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) Crops Division in Nu’u. 

The Pacific Island Centre (PIC) in Japan also delivered a virtual presentation on the current market trends for cocoa in Japan, export opportunities for the Pacific Island and in particular for Samoa as well as opportunities for networking and accessing the Japanese market. 

President of the Samoa Koko Industry Association, Alo Kolone Vaai who has also been an active trainer for this program, said he was happy to see the farmers attend.

“I am always very happy to see these young koko farmers that have emerged since the start of this program,” he said in a statement. 

“Cocoa is a long-term crop and it will serve you very well for 10 to 30 years if they are well looked after. 

“That is the aim of these workshops to teach this next generation of cocoa farmers how to better look after their cocoa trees. 

“Samoa was one of the leading producers and exporters of cocoa in the Pacific region, however, the number of exports rapidly decreased due to the effects of climate change, severe cyclones in the early 1990s which completely destroyed many cocoa farms.”

Alo added that the amount of cocoa Samoa exports overseas today is nothing compared to what was previously exported.

“Hence the establishment of SKIA which aims to return our country as one of the leading cocoa suppliers in the Pacific. 

“The Youth Koko program conveniently coincides with this goal and I am very thankful to the United Nations Development Program and the Japanese Embassy for funding these workshops and I hope there will be many more such opportunities in the future.”

One of the participants, Taelega Toma Naumati Sa’anapu, expressed his gratitude to the parties that facilitated the workshops.

“I would like to give thanks to the UNDP and the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc for the great opportunity to be able to attend this training. 

“To be honest, this is the first time I have participated in such a well presented, well performed and well-planned training program. 

“Many of my fellow participants I have met today are from all over Samoa and it just reflects the level of interest our youth have for farming life especially through the development of cocoa. 

“I really hope that the youth who participated here today will take something from this program to further expand their koko farms to become local koko exporters in the future.”

The workshop concluded with UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Verena Linneweber’s closing remarks emphasising their support for the Samoa Government and the communities recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With REDSAF, we support the Government of Samoa and communities in recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and help increase their resilience to such future shocks with particular focus on the agriculture and fisheries sector,” Linneweber said. 

“One important way of doing this is through creating employment opportunities for unemployed women and youth and strengthening their livelihoods and asset base.

“The Youth Koko Initiative in particular is an important element in these efforts, by equipping Samoa’s young koko farmers – like yourselves – with the skills, knowledge and resources to commercialise and expand their koko farms and by revitalising and strengthening the links within Samoa’s koko industry. 

“We hope that this will generate employment opportunities and increase Samoa’s export potential for koko to overseas markets.”