In Africa's fields, a plan to pay fair wages for chocolate withers

Edouard Kouame Kouadio, a farmer cuts a cocoa pod with a machete at his cocoa farm in Gabeadji village, San Pedro, Ivory Coast January 31, 2023. REUTERS/Ange Aboa

SAN PEDRO, Ivory Coast/LONDON (Reuters) -Ivorian cocoa bean farmer Edouard Kouame Kouadio expects to die poor, despite rising demand for the raw material that feeds the world's insatiable appetite for chocolate.

More chocolate than ever is eaten globally, but a flagship programme launched in 2019 that promised a living wage to growers like Kouadio in top cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana has left many worse off, data and interviews with growers, traders and industry experts show.