Bitter sweet chocolate
Two-thirds of the world’s cocoa is produced in Western Africa, from that around 43% sourced from Côte d’Ivoire. World Cocoa Foundation reports that around 50 million people depend on cocoa as a main source of their income. Every day many children toil in abusive labor conditions in West Africa’s cocoa fields. Iindividual cocoa farmers are at the mercy of volatile world markets, when cocoa companies pay prices so low that many cocoa farmers cannot meet their families’ basic needs. The prices can move from around 1000$ to 5000$ per ton in a matter of years. And how can cocoa farmers respond? Cut down the cocoa trees? Plant new ones? Actions that take time to implement them. Time that farmers don’t have. They have to feed theirs families on daily basis.
Our answer to that is Fair Trade chocolate where principles don’t allow:
- Forced and abusive child labor
- Farming families earn a price that is adequate to meet their basic human needs
- Environmentally sustainable production methods are required
Buying fair trade chocolate means that you care about these problems, and that you are willing to do something about it!
