Nestlé Côte d'Ivoire, a subsidiary of the Swiss agri-food giant, launched Thursday in Abidjan, an income acceleration program for cocoa producers. This project will improve the working and living conditions of 10,000 farmers over the period 2022-2023.

The program aims to fight against scourges such as child labor in cocoa fields. Nestlé Côte d'Ivoire is also committed to "helping households to find sources of income outside the cocoa field with small projects" that it will support, while offering them the necessary training. The program should allow the development of agroforestry.

The "test" phase, as part of the implementation plan, will run from 2022-2023 and will target 10,000 households. A so-called "deployment" phase should make it possible over the period 2024-2030 to reach 160,000 households, overall. The program aims to address the challenges of sustainable cocoa production.