About us | About us |
|
|
|
|
Our aim is to go straight to the roots of the many problems within our industry – social, economic and ecological injustices –, and to develop alternatives that give the cocoa sector a brighter and more sustainable future. We want to do so in a pragmatic and constructive manner. The CocoaMasters are building capacities on different fronts: agronomic and scientific, organisational and social, and economic and managerial. With these capacities, we aim to unite more and more farmers, so as to create a network that will give us leverage to tackle the issues we want to address.
Who's who
Sebastian is the managing director of CocoaMasters. He is a full-time cocoa farmer from the village of Malende, South-West Region, Cameroon. As the founder of CocoaMasters, he has a lot of practical intelligence, great organisational skills, and a keen sense of what needs to be changed within the cocoa industry. Sebastian manages our growing network of cocoa farmers, and develops programs that will alter the sector for the better. Contact Sebastian at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Laurens is the co-founder of CocoaMasters and is the organisation's principal scientific advisor. He is an environmental anthropologist with years of experience as a natural resource management consultant. Laurens has been developing environmentally and climate-friendly farming systems for the tropics, and has attracted major funding for their development from governments as well as from some of the world's largest environmental organisations. Contact Laurens at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Cletus Akwoa Cletus is a cocoa farmer from the South West Region of Cameroon. As a founding member of the CocoaMasters, he inspires young farmers to join the organisation. Even though a small farmer himself, Cletus understands the global nature of the cocoa industry, and creates points of intervention at the right spots. Fossung Vera Nyouma Focuses on gender within the cocoa industry. Even though dominated by men, all activities carried out in the cocoa farming sector affect women directly. Vera is developing a business model in which women control the process of drying cocoa. Aje Marcus A cocoa farmer who has a particular interest in eradicating child labor within the industry in West and Central Africa. Kome Theophilus Theo is a rubber farmer who wants to diversify into cocoa. He joined the CocoaMasters because he thinks our ideas will help him enter new markets from the very start: the organic, low carbon and fair trade markets. Agyeson Sarah Mme Agyeson is a qualified nurse who works in villages in South-West Cameroon, where many cocoa farmers suffer from being exposed to agrochemicals. Sarah has an interest in developing programs that improve the health of cocoa farmers. Anu John Is our creative genius who develops innovative projects for CocoaMasters. The man with a plan. Maurice Ekoh A cocoa farmer from the village of Malende, where CocoaMasters was first founded. Taku Oscar Tambe Our logistics man. Oscar has many years of experience in managing the supply chain of cocoa. From the bush to the big export ports, he knows the different bottlenecks cocoa goes through before being shipped to end markets. Menkem Zita Nazah A small cocoa farmer from Kumba. Njonkam Alphonse A small cocoa farmer from Kang Barombi. Aju Joseph A small cocoa farmer, with big ideas, from Malende. |
The CocoaMasters are an organisation of young and ambitious cocoa farmers from Central and West Africa. Even though we are small grassroots peasants, we have grand ideas. We have taken on the mission to transform nearly all aspects of today's cocoa industry: from the modes of production to the carbon and biodiversity footprint of a bar of chocolate. 
Sebastian Nkwetta 
Laurens Rademakers 