Chocolate’s dark secret. (2017/09)

Chocolate’s Human Impact 
Between five and six million people, largely
smallholders, grow cocoa around the world.
In Ivory Coast, cocoa farmers earn around 50
cents per day and in Ghana around 84 cents
per day. Farmers are shortchanged since
chocolate’s revenue and profits are strongly
skewed towards traders and manufacturers.

The revenue distribution has only gotten worse:
In the 1980s, farmers received an average of
16% of the value of a chocolate bar. today (2017/09), that
number is 6.6%. In comparison, 35% goes to
chocolate companies and 44% goes to retailers
like supermarkets.

Additionally, the chocolate industry is notorious
for labor rights abuses including slave labor and
child labor. According to the US Department of
Labor, “21 percent more children are illegally
laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and The
Ivory Coast than five years ago.” An estimated
2.1 million West African children are still
engaged in dangerous, physically taxing cocoa
harvesting. Rather than eliminate the problem,
the industry has merely pledged to reduce child
labor in Ivory Coast and Ghana by 70% by 2020.

 

What kind of income are these growers earning?

via The challenging lives of the world’s cocoa growers | PBS NewsHour

 

Cacao ivoirien : prix record du kilogramme fixé à 1000 FCFA – Afrique Inside Un média 100% numérique

Le prix du kilogramme du cacao pour la campagne commerciale 2015-2016 a été fixé, jeudi, à Yamoussoukro, au « prix record de 1000 FCFA cacao cacao

Bron: Cacao ivoirien : prix record du kilogramme fixé à 1000 FCFA – Afrique Inside Un média 100% numérique

 

Chocolate Giants Face Slave Labor Lawsuits

Boy raking cocoa

Bron: Courthouse News Service

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

By NICHOLAS IOVINO

 

“Il y aura une pénurie de chocolat en 2020”

Op 06/04/2015 toonde Terzake duidingsprogramma een docu over het wel of niet te kort van CHOCOLADE

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT CHOCOLATE

 

Cacao Farmers Taste Chocolate for The First Time

We all love a nice chunk of chocolate and the farmers of the Ivory Coast are no different, initially shocked by the sweetness only to eventually show off big grins, obviously enjoying their first bite.

Cacao Farmers Taste Chocolate for The First Time.

via Cacao Farmers Taste Chocolate for The First Time.

Watch how the Dutch respond to a cocoa bean in return:http://www.metropolistv.nl/en/themes/…

 

Chocolate Forever 7 Safeguarding supply

The risk that cocoa suppliers will not be able to meet the required demand is a serious threat to the cocoa sector. The trees that produce cocoa beans are generally old, are rooted in over-farmed soil, and are tended by poor farmers with little if any formal educaton. The majority of farmers are smallholders, which means that they grow cocoa as a cash crop on a small plot of land, along with food crops and occasionally also with other cash crops. From the income generated by these cash crops they pay their hospital bills, debts, their children’s school expenses. Farmers rarely have any remaining financial means to utilise for on-farm investments. Crop losses are a huge problem, as a large portion of the harvest is usually lost to pest and diseases. Money to invest in new plant material, fertilizer or pesticides is lacking; the know-how to apply it is scarce. Farmers often work by themselves and receive little support in terms of training, advice, or access to credit. In this context, exasperated by poor infrastructure and their marginal position farmers sometimes keep their children from school and allow them to help or work on the farm.

Because of these appalling conditions, the continuity of cocoa production is under threat. First, there is an exodus from the countryside as youngsters see no future there and seek other possibilities by migrating to the city. Additionally, crops like rubber, cassava, and oil palms have become more profitable for farmers. Cocoa production in West Africa shows a decreasing trend of 2% per year, while, at the same time, demand for cocoa products, including high quality chocolate, is expected to increase in the near future. The cocoa industry is concerned about these developments and faces a majpr challenge: how to assure that supply continues to meet demand.

In order to assure that farmers remain in the cocoa business and increase the quantity and quality of their production, industry partners are investing heavily in farmers. Multinational companies have their own initiatives, they are also increasingly collaborating to jointly tackle the problem of supply failure. Not only cocoa companies, but also goverments, financial institutions, NGOs, labour unions and certifiers have been joining forces to provide support to farmers. A example of such efforts is the international Cocoa Livelihoods Program. Thhis program focuses on enhancing farmer knowledge, improving farmer marketing skills on agriculturally diversified farms. The Dutch have positioned themselves as leaders in the proces of mainstreaming sustainable cocoa. It is estimated that Dutch companies will invest around $325 million in sustainable cocoa during the course of the next several years (accessed15 July 2010). In the Netherlands a number of industry players have united forces, together with goverment and members of civel society, realise the goal of sustainable cocoa and, addressing the risk of supplier failure, to improve yields and profitability for farmers. One of the results is the UTZ CERTIFIED Cocoa Program, established by several multinational companies.

Chocolate unwrapped

With this initiative they want to at least double the current yields of approximately 400 kg / ha by training farmers in modern farming techniques, using new plant material and increased use of fertilizer. They also want to increase dialogue with authorities to improve enabling factors. The program focuses on the largest producer countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ecuador. By focusing on capacity building in the source locations and providing farmer training, the program aims to improve the farmers’ productivity and the quality of their produce; which ultimately should be rewarded by the market, under the maxim: ‘Better price for better products’.