While most people have their favorite way of consuming chocolate, they also ignore how devastating this industry is. A dive into the problematic cocoa industry.
Employing poor workers to better benefit the industry
Most cocoa workers are way below the official poverty line fixed at $2/day by the UN. Actually, in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, they would need to earn 3 times more to reach this level. Without laws to implement social rights, activists say workers will most likely never benefit from the significant margin the industry enjoys. Not only do workers earn very little, but they are at greater risk of getting injured: long hours working under intense heat, handling of sharp objects, heavy lifting…
In fact, these low wages only worsen the global issues faced in producing countries: this system actually leads to child labour, in order to meet families needs. In the above-mentioned countries alone, 1.6 million children are exploited, often for much less than their parents. According to Anti-Slavery International, around 30,000 adults and children are subject to forced labor, which is a modern form of slavery. In regions with little access to education, human trafficking is still quite developed, and it furnishes unpaid workers to local cocoa farms.
Production levels are at an all-time high, which favors lower prices. As long as this wage issue is not addressed, it will be difficult to prevent child labor and human trafficking. Besides, though associations such as ASI are committed to the matter, it is still hard to assess exactly how spread these issues are, making it more difficult to prevent them.
An excessive production that accelerates deforestation
Another major issue induced by the industry is the destruction of huge parts of forests to plant new cocoa trees. When the indigenous trees are no longer productive, they are cut down, thus damaging biodiversity and species that live there. In West Africa, 80% of indigenous forests have disappeared in just 50 years. According to Mighty Earth, in 2020 only, 470km² of forests were lost, and numbers could increase.
The world's largest chocolate seller, Mars, has promised to commit to a more sustainable industry, taking part in the Cocoa and Forest Initiative with Ghanaian and Ivorian governments. This project should ensure a better traceability of production as well as the conservation and restoration of damaged forests. It could also help improve workers' conditions, but it will definitely be long before any true social improvements are seen.
Tess Mimoun
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