Thursday, June 26, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
June’s
a big month. Kids are out of school (and
hopefully into the fresh outdoors). Dads
are celebrated. It’s National Candy month.
There’s World Environment Day, World Oceans Day, and World Day Against Child
Labour on June 12 which is especially relevant for the chocolate industry.
The Dark side
of Chocolate
One of the
reasons Lisa and I founded Premium Organic Cafe was to help shine light on not
only the health benefit, but also the moral and ethical responsibility of
nurturing ourselves with organic and fair trade food. This month, the focus on our global love and
consumption of chocolate brings the issue of child slavery and labor to the
forefront.
$98 billion market.....
Chocolate was an $83 billion a year business in 2010 and is expected to
grow to $98.3 billion in 2016 (“Global
Chocolate, Cocoa Beans, Lecithin, Sugar and Vanilla Market by Market Share,
Trade, Prices, Geography Trend and Forecasts 2011-2016,” Markets and Markets.) Unfortunately,
cocoa farmers’ portion of this massive market is so low they live below the
absolute poverty level.
yet cocoa growers
live below absolute poverty level
Unfinished beans command a fraction of the value of processed chocolate.
Ghanaian cocoa farmers are getting about 77 cents per pound, where a high-end
maker selling 2-ounce chocolate bars for $9 apiece earns $72 per pound. Even
your basic $2 bar brings in $16 per pound, about 20 times what the farmer gets.
According to the Fairtrade Foundation, cocoa growers in West Africa earn, on
average, about 6 percent of the final cost of a chocolate bar. (source: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-human-cost-of-stuff/a-sweeter-deal-for-cocoa-farmers)
80% to 90% of cocoa comes from small, family-run farms between 5 – 10
acres. More than 70% of the
world’s supply of cocoa comes from two countries nestled on the southern shore
of West Africa: Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. There, whole communities are dedicated to
growing the crop that is lucrative for governments and international traders,
but brings below-poverty wages for the farmers who produce it. Low wages mean farmers cannot hire the labor
needed to harvest the crop, and perpetuates the child trafficking and worst
forms of child labor that have plagued the industry. (photo credit Nile Sprague, spraguephoto.com)
Children are exposed to chemicals, long working
hours, and the denial of a decent education. Low prices in the cocoa
industry have left smallholder farmers with impoverished incomes and with no
choice but to pull their children from school and have them help on the
plantation.
With low educational access
and attendance, families in the cocoa sector are caught in a vicious cycle of
poverty. Cocoa producers have little
bargaining power against the few large multinational companies that control the
supply chain and ultimately determine the livelihoods of farming families. (source: International labor rights forum http://www.laborrights.org /industries/cocoa)
(source: The Cocoa
Barometer 2012 Report, The VOICE Network)
Majority of child laborers are 5-11 years old
There are approximately 168 million
child laborers in the world, accounting for almost 11% of the child population
as a whole and 70% of child laborers work in agriculture (source: International
Labour Organization, a UN agency).
Children in the 5-11 years age group
account for by far the largest share of all child labourers: 73 million, or 44
per cent of the total child labour population. (source: International Labour Office “Making Progress Against Child Labour.
Global Estimates and Trends 2000-2012.”)
Children
are trafficked into cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. “At night it was
difficult to sleep because of the pains in my body, and then we had to get up
at 04.00 and work until 16.00. I was always tired.” said Abdoulaye from Burkina
Faso, who worked on the cocoa farm for several months at the age of nine. (photo credit Nile Sprague, spraguephoto.com)
Major cocoa producing countries include:
Africa – 68%
-- Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon
Asia/Oceania – 17%
-- Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea
·
Americas – 15%
-- Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia
How can you help? Through your wallet.
The poorest and
most vulnerable of the world grow and harvest the world’s chocolate. By choosing to eat chocolate certified by the
leading watchdog organizations, you help change this statistic. While there are numerous companies who
provide certification, a main requirement across each of them is that no child
labor was involved. The top three
organizations are Fairtrade International, Rainforest Global Alliance, and UTZ
CERTIFIED but look for any of these logos on cacao products.
Certified cocoa
accounted for less than 5% of the world’s cocoa volume in 2005. However, due to the outcry from consumers and
demand for accountability, the leading global cocoa procurer companies have
taken steps to increase this. Some
projections indicate that 25%-40% of the global cocoa production will be
ethically certified cocoa by the year 2020.
yes, but....
Whether the top companies will walk their talk and achieve that goal
remains to be seen. Deadlines have been
missed and some companies have not been transparent with their data or have not
disclosed it. The cocoa community also
recognizes the critical call for change as cocoa farmers have an average age of
55 and inherited plots. Their children
are abandoning the farms for better means.
Cocoa is a delicate plant and grows in a specific band around the
equator. If the current situation isn’t
fixed, a shortage of cocoa is predicted by 2020.
Initiatives are
in place that are achieving success for cocoa farmers and are reducing the
number of child laborers. A big reason
for this success is the media reports that uncovered the child slavery in
chocolate issue and subsequent pressure from consumers. If you have the opportunity to voice your
opinion to the global cocoa companies to make good on their pledges, do it. Your voice counts.
The Cocoa
Barometer 2012 Report provided by The VOICE Network - a network of European NGOs
and Trade Unions, working together to address sustainability issues in the
global cocoa supply chain – shows how much certified cocoa (in green) was
procured global leaders in 2011 and
their pledged amounts for 2015.
Links for more
information:
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