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The Living Income Model sets the Living Income Reference Price (LIRP) for cocoa in Ghana & Côte d’Ivoire.

Extreme poverty, the direct result of the unequally divided cocoa chain, is the root cause of forced labour, child labour and deforestation. Fairtrade and Tony’s Chocolonely share their vision on living income and use the same model for calculating the cocoa price that enables farmers to earn a living income. The Living Income Model, developed by Fairtrade, calculates the LIRP. The model reflects a holistic view where productivity increases, income diversification and paying a higher price are all needed to get farmers to a living income. We call upon all chocolate companies to make a living income the norm and to start using this model.

The living income model has a holistic view where increased productivity, income diversification and paying a higher price are needed to get farmers to a living income. This is a shared responsibility from the cocoa market players, cooperatives and farmers.

(see: Fairtrade Living Income Reference Prices for cocoa)

Our Living Income Model calculates the Living Income Reference Price for cocoa in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. In Ghana a farmer receive $ 2.10 per kg cocoa and in Côte d’Ivoire $ 2.20.

Each year, Tony’s calculates and pays the additional premium that enables cocoa farmers to earn a living income. Paying a higher price is part of Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles. To strengthen farmer organisations, in 2022/23 we invested an additional €676 (Côte d’Ivoire) and €299 (Ghana) per metric ton of cocoa in cooperatives.

For cocoa season 2022/23, the higher price is calculated as follows: