Earning a living income is a human right, including for farmers. It is also a key aspect of HALBA’s commitment to sustainability (see Living Income and Wage Policy).
Every human being has the right to a living income that supports a dignified existence. A living income covers the cost of food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, children’s school education and other basic expenses. It also offers leeway for unforeseen events. While Fairtrade has given many farmers a reliable income, some of them still struggle to escape poverty. The causes include excessively small cultivation areas, a lack of diversification and low levels of productivity in the agricultural plots; this can also be due to unforeseen weather conditions. A lack of know-how and the relevant technologies, paired with high production costs and fluctuating – and sometimes low – market prices for products grown and sold under these conditions, are further factors that pose challenges for farmers.
To combat poverty, Fairtrade International, the umbrella organisation of Fairtrade Max Havelaar, has collaborated with other players and calculated country-specific reference prices for various industries. These data determine, for example, how much a tonne of cocoa needs to cost to generate a living income for a farming family.
With the «Sankofa» sustainability project, HALBA has been supporting cocoa farmers since 2019 and at the same time promoting environmental protection and income diversification in cocoa cultivation in Ghana. In addition, since October 2020 project farmers have also been receiving a premium in addition to the cocoa sale price as part of this project. Since 2023, this premium has been paid transparently to farmers via mobile payment. The Living Income Differential (LID) will be paid with a time delay in each case so as to ensure farming families have an income during the non-harvest period too. The reference price is currently USD 2 120 per tonne of cocoa beans and will increase to USD 2 680 per tonne as of October 2025. Since the world market price is significantly higher, not only the project farmers but all farmers receive at least the reference price for a living income.
HALBA has set itself the goal of paying farmers a reference price to ensure a living income in all cocoa-producing regions. A further aim is to ensure farmers who grow critical raw materials for HALBA snack products also benefit from a higher price. For example, cashew and mango farmers in Burkina Faso already receive a reference price to provide them with a living income. The payment of a reference price for coconuts from Ivory Coast is currently being examined.
