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SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND / CHOCOLATE
STORY: SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND / CHOCOLATE
TRT: 4:37
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: PORTUGUESE / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: RECENT
4 AUGUST 2014 ROME, ITALY
1. Pan right, chocolate bars in shop
2. Med shot, person’s hand taking chocolate from shelf
3. Close up, person’s hand opening chocolate
4. Close up, chocolate bars on shelf
28 JULY 2014 LE PONTENT, FRANCE
5. Med shot, person’s hand taking Koaka São Tomé chocolate bar off shelf
7-9 APRIL 2014, SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND
6. Med shot, São Tomé island landscape, forest and sea
7. Wide shot, São Tomé island landscape, forest and sea
8. Med shot, mountain behind flowers
9. Close up, endemic purple flowers
10. Med shot, endemic bird in tree
11. Med shot, child collecting water
12. Wide shot, children playing on rusted tractor
13. Pan right to left across cleared forest
6 AUGUST 2014 ROME, ITALY
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea Serpagli, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
"Famers to make a living are more and more exploiting available resources. Their approach at the moment is very invasive and not sustainable."
7-9 APRIL 2014, SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND
15. Tilt up, forest cleared for farmland
16. Wide shot, João José walking through cocoa field
17. Tilt up, feet to João José picking cocoa pod from tree with stick
18. Close up, cocoa pod falling on the ground
19. Med shot, João José cutting cocoa pod off tree and putting in sack
20. Pan right, dilapidated cocoa plantation
21. Med shot, dilapidated cocoa plantation house
22. Med shot, João José picking cocoa pod from tree with stick
23. Close up, cocoa pod falling off tree
24. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese): João Linda José, Organic Cocoa Farmer: "We didn’t have anyone to buy our cocoa. We'd go break the cocoa in the field and bring it back to the village and it would just rot there and then we had to throw it away."
25. Med shot, João José picking cocoa pod from ground
26. Close up, João José putting cocoa pod in sack, tilt up to face
27. Wide shot, tilt down João José and other farmer emptying sack of cocoa pods on to ground
28. Wide shot, João José carrying basket of cocoa beans past drying racks
29. Med shot, João José pouring cocoa beans on to drying racks
30. Close up, focus pull, cocoa beans on drying rack
28 JULY 2014, LE PONTENT, FRANCE
31. Wide shot, Sébastien Balmisse entering chocolate storeroom
32. Close up, Sébastien Balmisse's hands scooping chocolate pieces from sack
33. Med shot, Sébastien Balmisse's face tilt down to hands scooping chocolate pieces from sack
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Sébastien Balmisse, Cocoa Programmes Manager, Kaoka:
"First of all the quality of its cocoa is quite exceptional. I think also São Tomé is, by its history, quite an interesting country to work in and to try to give confidence and dignity to the farmers again."
35. Med shot, pan left to right Kaoka chocolate bars ending on São Tomé chocolate bar
7-9 APRIL 2014, SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND
36. Close up, man scooping chocolate beans with bucket
37. Wide shot, man scooping cocoa beans into basket
38. Close up, words "CECAB" on João José's shirt
39. Wide shot, cocoa drying on racks with woman behind
40. Close up, man putting "organic cocoa" sack in warehouse
41. Pan left to right, João José wheeling sacks of cocoa into warehouse filled with sacks
42. Med shot, João José placing cocoa sack in warehouse, other sacks in foreground
43. Med shot, woman putting cocoa in sack
44. Close up, hands putting dried cocoa beans in sack
45. Pan right to left, João José putting sacks of cocoa in truck
46. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Higino do Sacramento Catarina, CECAB, Former President:
"In 2005 it was the first productive year. We produced 67 tons of cocoa. Today in 2014 we will produce 1200 tons."
47. Zoom in, sacks of cocoa in warehouse
48. Pan right to left, man putting cocoa beans in baskets to João José waiting in line
49. Wide shot, women pouring cocoa beans into sacks
50. Close up, cocoa beans poured into sack
51. Close up, figures written on paper
52. Wide shot, Fátima Horta giving money to João José
53. Med shot, João José's wife and son watching TV
54. Wide shot, João José's watching TV
55. Med shot, Fátima Horta's face pan to man
56. Wide shot, Fátima Horta giving money to man
57. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Fátima Horta, CECAB Cocoa Association Manager:
"People talk about small farmers, but I consider myself a big farmer, a great farmer. I’m getting better and better and I like what I do."
Close up empty cocoa pods thrown in bucket
58. Med shot, Fátima Horta, João José and other man emptying cocoa
pods
59. Close up, hands mixing white cocoa beans in bucket
60. Wide shot, Fátima Horta, João José and other man mixing cocoa beans in bucket
61. Tilt down, João José emptying cocoa pods
6 AUGUST 2014, ROME, ITALY
62. Med shot, Andrea Serpagli writing on map
63. Med shot, Andrea Serpagli writing on map
64. Close up, Andrea Serpagli writing on map, pan to words "São Tomé Forest Clear Cuts and Deforestation"
65. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea Serpagli, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
"They allow a sustainable development to take place. Sustainable in terms of protecting the environment, sustainable in terms of development of community, sustainable in terms of people earning more incomes."
7-9 APRIL 2014, SÃO TOMÉ ISLAND
66. Close up, man with São Tomé hat
67. Close up, man planting pepper plants
68. Wide shot, men planting pepper
69. Med shot, man picking pepper
70. Med shot, another man picking pepper
71. Close up, pepper thrown into sack
72. Wide shot, men picking pepper
73. Wide shot, men weighing pepper
74. Close up, man moving weights on scale
75. Med shot, man watching scale
76. Close up, men shaking hands
The world loves chocolate. Each year more than 83 billion US dollars are spent on it. And the average European eats up to a kilogram of it every month. But did you ever think that your choice of chocolate could help save one of the world's most threatened environments?
Like here on the remote island of São Tomé, more than 230 kilometres off the West African coast. It's one of the world's biodiversity hot spots - with hundreds of plant and bird species found nowhere else. It's also one of the world's poorest countries and desperate farmers are clearing this unique forest for farmland.
SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea Serpagli, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“Famers to make a living are more and more exploiting available resources. Their approach at the moment is very invasive and not sustainable.”
But there's a type of farming that is sustainable - both for farmers' incomes and for the environment. Organic cocoa. São Tomé was once the world’s largest exporter of cocoa, but in the 1990s the global cocoa price crash destroyed a declining industry here and farmers like João José almost abandoned the crop.
SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) João Linda José, Organic Farmer:
“We didn’t have anyone to buy our cocoa. We'd go break the cocoa in the field and bring it back to the village and it would just rot there and then we had to throw it away.”
But then, between 2002 and 2005 organic chocolate became a phenomenon and global sales doubled . The International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, was working in São Tomé at the time to revive the island's economy and this growing demand for organic cocoa presented a whole new opportunity. So IFAD looked for a buyer who could partner with them to develop the industry. A French company called Kaoka which specialises in fair-trade organic chocolate, visited Sao Tome, and immediately saw its potential.
UPSOUND: Sébastien Balmisse – Cocoa Programmes Manager, Kaoka
First of all the quality of its cocoa is quite exceptional. I think also São Tomé is, by its history, quite an interesting country to work in and to try to give confidence and dignity to the farmers again.
So Kaoka and IFAD worked together to set up the first farming cooperative on the island known as CECAB, providing the members with the funds and training to produce high quality cocoa that is organically certified and Kaoka committed to buying all its produce. CECAB is now made up of more than 2000 farming families – almost a fifth of Sao Tome's rural population. Together they have revived the cocoa industry here.
SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Higino do Sacramento Catarina – Former President, CECAB:
“In 2005 it was the first productive year. We produced 67 tons of cocoa. Today in 2014 we will produce 1200 tons.”
Cooperative members, like João, now have a guaranteed buyer who is prepared to pay forty per cent more than the conventional market for this high quality, organic product. João's income has gone up by more than twenty times and now he can provide a comfortable life for his family. Fátima Horta, who manages this group of farmers, is proud of her work.
SOUNDBITE (English) Fátima Horta, Manager, CECAB Member Association:
“People talk about small farmers, but I consider myself a big farmer, a great farmer. I’m getting better and better and I like what I do.”
For Fátima, part of feeling like a great farmer, is playing a role in preserving the environment. Organic cocoa is grown under the shade of existing trees so these farmers do not have to clear the forest and the soil is kept free of chemicals. IFAD's Andrea Serpagli believes these types of public-private partnerships are key to the island's survival.
SOUNDBITE (English)Andrea Serpagli, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“They allow a sustainable development to take place. Sustainable in terms of protecting the environment, sustainable in terms of development of community, sustainable in terms of people earning more incomes.”
So IFAD is brokering more of these partnerships in organic pepper and coffee, and it now has new trade agreements with five European food companies – which means that the farmers here no longer need to cut down the forests to make a good living. So the global demand for organic food might just save this island.
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