Chocolate Report PDF - Fair Trade Barrie

Any serious initiative against child
slavery is obviously to be welcomed
and encouraged. But the underlying
issue - as was pointed out by Chris
Pond MP during a debate on slavery
in the House of Commons on 20 May
2002 - is poverty. He argued that the
industry could only ensure its products
were slavery free in one of two ways:
“Either it must source its raw materials
directly from individual producers who
it knows are not using exploitative
labour practices, or it must work with
Governments and NGOs to ensure
that those practices are eliminated
throughout cocoa production. To do
that we shall have to tackle the evil of
child slavery at its root - and that root
is poverty and debt.”
If it is poverty and debt that drives
growers to use children as cheap
or forced labour, then the Co-op
believes the quickest way of ending
slavery is by giving growers a decent
and stable return for their produce.
In light of the high volume of chocolate
consumed in the UK and the vulnerability
of cocoa growers to the worst kind of
exploitation, the Co-op believes the
industry has a duty to substantially
increase its commitment to directlysourced
cocoa. None of the major
chocolate manufacturers currently
has a Fairtrade product in its range.
The Co-op is setting an example with
its block chocolate initiative, in which
all the cocoa will be Fairtrade
sourced from Ghana in West Africa.
Why West Africa?
Nearly 90% of the cocoa that comes
into the UK comes from West Africa,
which produces over 67 per cent of
the world crop. The West African
cocoa-producing countries are
amongst the world’s poorest and
their economies are critically
dependent on cocoa. West African
growers are smaller and more isolated
than those in other parts of the world,
where size gives growers muscle in
their negotiations with dealers,
and they have fewer alternative
crops to grow.
Where governments have tried to
enforce a minimum national price,
traders are alleged to take
advantage of grower isolation and
vulnerability to flout the official price.
Even if traders stick to the correct
government price per kilo, growers
frequently complain that they are
tricked into believing their cocoa
weighs less than it actually does,
since they have to rely on the traders’
own weighing scales.
Why Ghana?
Ghana is the UK’s main supplier of cocoa, but there are three other reasons for
the decision to source there.
Cost increases: the devaluation of the Ghanaian currency,
the cedi, and the withdrawal of government subsidies on
agricultural inputs have resulted in a six-fold increase in costs,
which very few growers can meet.
Ghana’s dependence on cocoa: whilst some other West African
growers produce coffee as well as cocoa as a source of cash
earnings, in Ghana food crop sales at subsistence levels are the
only agricultural alternative to cocoa.
Ghanaian cocoa is the best: Ghanaian growers are famed for
the skill and care in which they process the ripe cocoa beans
to develop the full flavour required for the best chocolate.
Patience and attention to detail is especially vital in the
fermentation stage. Growers elsewhere have tended to
sacrifice quality in order to speed up the process. We believe
quality will be crucial in encouraging UK consumers to switch
from current preferred brands to Fairtrade chocolate.
Because of the Co-op’s concerns about the labour conditions in the
chocolate chain, we sought a supplier in Ghana that could meet our
commitment to transparency and one that was large enough to supply
all the Fairtrade cocoa we would need. We wanted a supplier that would
derive real and lasting benefit from our initiative and one that could provide
the highest quality cocoa available. We found it in the shape of Ghana’s
biggest and best cocoa co-operative: Kuapa Kokoo.
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