I. The Nestlé Cocoa Plan aims to help farmers address the challenges they face through three pillars – better farming, better lives and better cocoa. Activities such as training in better agricultural practices, distributing higher-yielding plants, promoting gender equality and tackling child labor help farmers to improve the quality of their products as well as their income and livelihoods.

In Ecuador, the Nestlé Cocoa Plan is helping farmers transform their business models and become agripreneurs. Their training program, launched in 2017, comprises 15 four- hour sessions over six months. The sessions provide theoretical and practical skills in areas such as irrigation, fertilization, pruning and grafting, all of which help farmers improve their productivity and quality. Of more than 370 farmers trained so far, around 30% are under the age of 30, and 20% are women. A survey conducted on a sample of around 100 attendees of the 2017 and 2018 program showed that 40% had provided services and said their income had increased since the program.

One such young agripreneur is Wilson Matamoros, 24, who works on his family’s farm in Mocache, Los Ríos province. Having learned pruning techniques through Nestle program, he has increased the cocoa yield on the family farm and offers cocoa pruning services to other local farms, earning additional income. He now aims to become the leader of a group of cocoa pruners in the region.

1. Identify the nature of supply relationship that Nestle has tied up with the farmers in Ecuador? 2. Will this type of plan help Nestle in the long term? How? 3. Do you feel that given this kind of relationship, Nestle can become a monopoly in cocoa procurement? Why or why not?