Cocoa Bean Game

 

This week we have been continuing to explore Fair Trade.

 

We deepened our understanding of this by playing a game called the 'Cocoa Bean Game'.

 

To play this game we had to split into small groups which represented the people involved in the journey of a Cocoa Bean from farm to chocolate bar, to shops and finally to the customer.

 

The groups were:

 

The Fair Trade Farmers

The Independent Farmers

 

The Fair Trade Chocolate Company

The Big Chocolate Company

 

The Supermarket

The Shoppers

 

 

Each group started off with a certain amount of materials and tasks to complete within their section of the journey.

Eg Farmers produce cocoa beans and sell them to the chocolate companies.

Chocolate companies turn beans into chocolate bars and sell them to the supermarket.

Supermarket sell bars to shoppers.

 

This all sounds very easy doesnt it!

 

Well, during the game, the seasons changed and with that came a new set of instructions.

 

In season 2, cocoa beans were being grown in large numbers.  This meant the chocolate companies could be picky about who they bought from and were not willing to pay full price.  The independent farmers lost lots of money as they had to slash their prices.  The Fair Trade famers kept selling at the set price that they had been promised. 

 

'a bit of trading happening here between chocolate company and supermarket'

 

In season 3, disaster struck and there was a crop failure.  The prices of the beans went up as there were not as many available to sell. The independent farmers needed to make up for their loss in season 2 and sold their beans at very high prices.  The fair trade farmers stayed steady with their price as they had not made a loss last season and continued to make sales to the chocolate companies.

 

By this time the shoppers were realising what a good thing Fair Trade is and were demanding that the supermarket sold more Fair Trade chocolate.  They passed this message onto the choco companies, who did their best to supply what was being asked for.

 

' nothing left to do for the independent farmers and all of the chocolate companies now wanted fair trade beans!'

 

At the end of the fun and frantic session the children in P6 were able to see more clearly how Fair Trade farmers benefit from being part of the scheme.  The independent farmers were interested in becoming fair trade as it would help them to be better off.

 

We had a great class discussion about the benefits of Fair Trade and the pupils are keen to promote this where possible.