The Cocoa Trail

This series was taken in the Côte d'Ivoire jungle, where I was following the trail of the cocoa bean from the tree through to the manufacturing. The cocoa farmers are collecting a late harvest. After being knocked from the trees, the cocoa pods are collected and broken open to reveal the beans in a sweet white pulp.The beans are then hand dried in the sun before being packed off to the processing plant. Despite the bad reputation surrounding cocoa farming, Abdoulaye, the head farmer, tells me that his team are looked after very well and are lucky to have their jobs, which even includes medical care. "We are happy in a our work - the biggest challenge for us is climate change. The rains are becoming less frequent and when they do fall, they are unpredictable.This will lead to failed crops and much smaller harvests”