Relevant Reading

Fairtrade Living Income Reference Prices (LIRP) for cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire were first established in 2018, and revised in 2019, following the publication of living income benchmarks by the Living Income Community of Practice (LICOP). According to Fairtrade International, commitments for the next two years (2026 – 2027) are set to reach almost 48,000 tonnes, which represents another 50 percent increase. 

Fairtrade has been testing this approach with frontrunner companies who committed to voluntarily paying the LIRP to their supply chain partners. Through pilot projects, the assumptions underlying the LIRP calculation are closely monitored. A review of the Fairtrade LIRP for cocoa took place in 2025 and was published on 30 April 2026. For more details on the rationale behind the revised LIRP values to enter into force at the start of the cocoa season in 2026/27, refer to this explanatory note.

The Cocoa Barometer is a publication, with the aim of creating an up-to-date, fair, and clear overview of the state of sustainability of the cocoa sector. The Barometer looks at the sector as a whole, but also couples aggregated and disaggregated company and country data with clear visualizations and fair contextualization of challenges, commitments, and accomplishments. It is published by a consortium of civil society actors from across the globe, and hosted by the VOICE network.

a Cocoa Barometer Consultation paper