The farmers of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers' Union gather each year for an annual general meeting (AGM). At this meeting the farmers, representatives sent from all of the Kuapa Kokoo village societies gather to hear about the state of the cooperative and the state of their chocolate company, Divine Chocolate. This year's meeting was special. For the first time, Divine chocolate distributed dividends to Kuapa Kokoo from their ownership stake in Divine in the UK.

Sophi Tranchell, managing director for Divine Chocolate in the UK reports from the 2007 Kuapa Kokoo AGM which took place in Kumasi, central Ghana, in July.

"Flying over the rainforest in a small plane from Accra, Ghana’s Capital city, to Kumasi, the old Ashanti capital in central Ghana, we arrive for another Kuapa Kokoo AGM. Kuapa Kokoo is organised at village and regional levels. 2400 delegates from across the hundreds of square miles of Ghana’s cocoa growing regions, a man and a woman from each village society, gather in the Royal Parade Ground, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology..

After the opening prayer and introduction, Mr C K Buah, the newly elected president of Kuapa Kokoo, sets out the proposed three year strategy to the assembled delegates. One of the new proposals is that, in order to increase productivity, each area will work to deliver a target volume of cocoa. These have been set against each area’s best performance over the last four years. The delegates, seated by area, listen carefully and after consideration vote in favour of the new targets. Comfort Kumeah, who toured the UK on behalf of Kuapa Kokoo in 2001 for Fairtrade Fortnight and visited the US for the launch of Divine in 2007, is now the Chair of the Farmers’ Trust. She explains the new procedures for the allocation of Fairtrade social premiums and makes a commitment to make good any projects that are not working. The meeting also considers a draft new constitution and a new trust deed. The National Executive has been working hard to get all these document ready in time for the AGM, and seeing the draft documents in every delegate’s hand makes you appreciate the challenges of democracy in action.

The agenda is punctuated with musical interludes. Delegates dressed in distinctly designed Kuapa cloth and waving Kuapa handkerchiefs get up and dance to the infectious tunes of a brass band.

Back to the serious business of the meeting, Sandy Balfour, Chair of Divine Chocolate, reports on the company’s performance over the past year. He explains that the success of Divine depends upon Kuapa’s good quality cocoa, which makes delicious chocolate, and Kuapa’s excellent co-operative reputation. He thanks the farmers’ representatives on the board of Divine Chocolate, who have attended every board meeting over the last 8 years and have spoken to supporters, media and even detractors to promote Divine. All this is a build-up to the landmark presentation of the first dividend from Divine. For everyone present this is a fantastic moment in the long road that began with the formation of Kuapa Kokoo back in 1993. For the first time, cocoa farmers benefit as brand owners and not only as cocoa suppliers. Kuapa Kokoo’s share of the dividend is a cheque for £47,379. Mr Buah, President of Kuapa Kokoo accepts the cheque to great applause, which doubles in volume when he proposes that each paid-up member in good standing should receive a 1 cedi ($1) dividend. The delegates decide the balance will be used to re-capitalise the union’s licensed buying company, Kuapa Kokoo Ltd.

We took 3000 bars of Divine chocolate to Ghana, so that every delegate could taste the fruits of their labour. Most cocoa farmers have never tasted chocolate. Delegates cheer loudly as the bars are handed out and declare themselves delighted and impressed. We have the weather on our side – the heavy rain and cooler than usual temperatures mean that the chocolate bars are not oozing out of their wrappers. The rain spells good news for the forthcoming cocoa crop too."