Chocolate and cocoa - what you need to know
"Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty." (Look up James 5:1-6 in the bible to see the rest)
Recently I've been learning about where the cocoa comes from that is used to make the chocolate we eat. 67% of the worlds cocoa is produced in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, it's also produced in some other countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Dominican Republic and Bolivia.
Unfortunately, from what i've been learning, the people who produce cocoa don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of it as we do when we eat chocolate. Here's some things you need to know:
- 80% of the production (from cocoa to chocolate bar) is done by the farmers, not chocolate companies, but,
- The average income for households in West Africe producing cocoa= US$30-108 per year
- the farmers get about 1-7cents per chocolate bar sold
- about 284,000 children are working on cocoa farms in West Africa, mostly in the Ivory Coast (which produces 43% of the world's cocoa from 600,000 farms)
- There is also a big problem of forced labour
- Six chocolate companies control 80%of the chocolate market
- After some big publicity in the U.S. in 2001 of the problem of child labour on cocoa farms, susequent public outcry and then being pushed by the U.S Govt, the chocolate industry agreed to take voluntary steps to ends child labour
- However, there has been little progress and nothing done to ensure fair prices are paid by companies for cocoa produced.
There is some good news. We can buy chocolate made from cocoa that is produced and sold fairly. Look for the FAIRTRADE label to be sure that the people farming the cocoa were paid a fair price and that the workers had fair conditions. In addition to this, a premium is paid to communities to support social, economic and environmental development.Two companies sell Fairtrade chocolate in Australia (that I know of), they are Cocolo and Green & Blacks. Both of these are also organic and so are available in organic shops.
You can buy these at Oxfam Shops (although the Hobart one is about to close down), City Organics in Criterion St (Hobart CBD), All Organic Shop (north hobart). Coles are trialling the sale of Cocolo in some NSW & Victoria stores so hopefully this goes well and will eventually in up in Tassie. (We're working on it!)If you are a coffee drinker, then look out for Fairtrade certified coffee, identifiable by the FAIRTRADE label above. Fairtrade coffee is more widely available than chocolate but sales and availability of Fairtrade products are rapidly increasing.
More info:
Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand
Info about the campaign for fairer chocolate
Report by Anti-slavery International - The Cocoa Industry in West Africa: A history of explotation".
Cocolo
Green & Blacks
Fairtrade standards for Cocoa, for small farmers organisations (includes how fairtrade prices are calculated p.5)
posted by Yvonne @ 9:39 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I guess this raises the question how much the famers get through the Fair Trade system. This website suggests that farmers in Costa Rica would 8 cents for a chocolate bar. (Is that US or Australian? I don't care!) They seem to work on long-term contracts, which gives stability to the farmers, but may mean the farmers lose out if the cocoa price goes up.
But at least the FT system is a step in the right direction.
Hi John, thanks for your comment - it's great you're interested.
How did you calculate that? you know that chocolate bars aren't made up entirely of cocoa?
The good news is that Fair trade prices are set at a minimum, if the world market price goes up then so does the Fairtrade price - see this doc for info - (see p.5 - 6.1.3) - FLO stands for Fairtrade Labelling organistaion. http://www.fairtrade.net/pdf/sp/english/Cocoa%20SP%20Dec%2005%20EN.pdf
From stories I've read, such as those in the link you gave, it seems clear that farmers report significant benefits when they are in fairtrade contracts - this is helped when the market demand grows ie. when we buy Fairtrade chocolate and from some stats from 2000 fairtrade cooperatives produced 89 million pounds of cocoa but sold only 3 million at fairtrade prices, but sales have increased a lot since then.
It is sad that there is even a need for Fairtrade labelling and certification system.
cheers
yvonne
I just edited the post and added in the link to a document from the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation about calcualation of Fairtrade prices (seeing as it didn't fit in my last comment)
you know that chocolate bars aren't made up entirely of cocoa?
Yes, but I think I ignored it for purposes of calculation. The point being, it still doesn't seem all that much, though to the farmers there would be a lot of difference between 1c and 8c.
The phrase "fair price" seems like it could be abused.
i don't really get the 1-8cents thing, i might ask the Fair Trade Association seeing as we want to know how much of the Fairtrade chocolate bars get to farmers. Did you calculate 8 cents from the $0.80/pound for cocoa, which is the minium price for fairtrade cocoa?
yes i suppose "fair price" could be abused but the Fairtrade certification system guartanees a price that is a livable income for the growers, in addition to a fair trade premium that importers pay that goes to community projects. A "fair price" (in addition to working conditions) is the cornerstone of the certification system by independant organisations, so i think we can trust them to fulfil their main point of existence.
This seems significant to me:
"Members of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative typically earn about NZ$600 per annum – 50% more
than other cocoa farmers in Ghana." See my next post.
Hi Yvonne, just wanted to let you know that the Cocolo site you linked to seems to be about travel information? I don't think it's the right link or maybe it's changed. The Green and Black's one is fine though.
cheers,
Bron
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