A Wife's Traceability Policy
...verification or connection?
‘So, what are you eating this evening?’
Eli is 6759 km away. We’re on a video call. WhatsApp.
‘Fufu with chicken light soup!’
‘Look how food is making you excited. So who is making fufu for you?’
She knows fufu is not on the list of dishes I make myself. And I could just give her the name, but a little mischief won’t hurt.
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Because I’m your wife!’
‘Ah, okay, that’s true. But, why do I feel like anytime you ask about what I eat, you’re more interested in where I get it than what exactly I eat?’
‘But of course. Food means a lot to you, and anyone who makes your food is special. So I always want to know who makes your food.’
I could just give her the answer. I was about to. But I heard my name from outside.
‘Alright, alright. Since you insist, I’m going out now to grab the fufu, so hold on and meet the person yourself.’
I got to the gate. My fufu maker was waiting. I grabbed the red plastic basket with my left hand, and then held out the phone to her: ‘Someone wants to see you.’
She took the phone and, before she even looked at screen...
‘Mama Theresa!’
They exchanged greetings and laughed.
‘Mama,’ I interrupted, ‘Elikplim insists on knowing who is giving me fufu.’
Immediately, the older woman immediately waves a thumbs up in front of the camera: ‘Ohhhh, that’s a very good wife. You’ve done very well. I’m the one making it for him, so there’s nothing to worry about, okay?’
‘Okay Mama Theresa, thank you so much!’
They laughed again, talked a bit more as I dreamed about my fufu, and then Mama handed back the phone. I thanked her and headed home.
‘Satisfied now?’
‘Yes! I knew it had to be Mama Theresa or Auntie Dzifa.’
Eli has a relationship with Mama Theresa. She often asks me how the cocoa farmer is doing, extends her greetings to her, and when she comes to town, she visits to say Hi. To her, the older woman is special because she takes care of her husband.
And Mama Theresa? She’d often ask me, ‘How is Elikplim? Have you heard from her?’ When on Eli’s birthday she received a video collage of people wishing well, it included a shot of Mama Theresa. She sang for her, danced for her, and prayed for her.
Now, what does this story have to do with cocoa traceability and transparency?
Well, it turns out that some consumers of cocoa products, especially chocolate, are like my wife. They care to know as many details as exist before they decide which brown bar to pick. Who made the bar? What are the ingredients? Where is the cocoa sourced from? Who produced it, a man or a woman? Is it organic? Is the farm on a deforested land or not? Etc.
These are the ethical consumers, and to win their trust, it’s become standard due-diligence for cocoa suppliers to make their supply chain transparent and their cocoa beans traceable to a plot of land and a farmer. There are even tech-based traceability and transparency services to help brands organize such information. Just scan the QR code on the package to verify where exactly your chocolate bar comes from.
Cool, right? Heheh. But here’s something...
If I told my Eli that ‘Alice is making me fufu today,’ she’d frown:
‘Who is Alice, and why would she want to make fufu for you?’
Because that name is not on her list of people she trusts to make my food. Even if I confirm where Alice lives, even if I show her Alice’s ID card, Eli won’t be satisfied, and she won’t trust this stranger Alice to make my food. Eli would have no connection, no relationship, no story with Alice.
Current cocoa traceability is like that. A bag of cocoa can be traced to a farm and a name au maximum.
‘Uh, okay? But who is this farmer? What do they look like? And what about them makes this beans special, fine, premium?’ In essence, what is the story of this farmer, this origin, this farm?
These juicy questions are the premium cocoa supplier’s chance to tell stories about their partner-farmers, their communities, their skills, their personalities and the contributions of these to the quality beans they produce.
These stories will bring consumers closer to the cocoa origin. Like Mama Theresa to Eli, its culture and its people would mean much more to them than ‘uh, okay’. And if you’ve built a strong partnership with the people in your supply chain, limitless opportunities exist to find and tell such stories.
So now, two choices remain for the cocoa brand that wants to earn consumer trust in a saturated commodity market:
Traceability can be a mere verification or authentication process. Or it can be used to build a bridge of trust between a consumer like Elikplim, and a cocoa farmer like Mama Theresa.
We shall pick up this conversation again. But have you noticed?
Mama Theresa sounds like Mother Teresa.
Hah! Don’t mind me. Thanks for reading this. And please, take good care of yourself for me. Okay?
credit: my Precious [wife] read drafts of this story.
In case you missed it…
'Your stories made the chocolates taste much better'
…you can really feel the joy in your relationships as you tell these stories…brings a smile every time…