Cocoa Trade and Corporate Compromises.

Fairtrade 2009

The discourse surrounding West Africa’s cocoa production raises another pertinent issue relating to ‘neocolonialism’. Similarly to gold in the DRC, the analysis of cocoa is from a critical perspective of powerful companies who maintain significant corporate control of the global market. The argument continues to be, that their economically driven policies lead to unfair trade, which in turn, contributes to further marginalization of the poorest of the poor. When conveying this insight to the cocoa trade, one can see that as fast as the disparities of the north-south divide grow, so too, do the giant chocolate producing conglomerates. Like gold, the biggest concern of the cocoa trade stems from the commodity’s high demand in the West, and of course, it can only remain in that ‘high demand’, if the prices are what middle class consumers are willing to pay.

Image from Sky News

Although not alone, The United States consumes over three billion pounds (almost 1.4 billion kilograms), or US$13 billion worth of cocoa per year, and is by far the largest importer in the world (Lobe 2002). Whether it is hot chocolate, chocolate treats at Christmas, on Valentines Day, for Easter, at the movies -or for other celebratory days. It is little wonder this demand keeps this multibillion dollar industry thriving.






keepeastereasy.com 2009

As major corporations continue to carry on their names as traditional household favorites on one side of the world, on the other, hundreds of thousands of West African farmers work hard under the pressure to supply the demand for cheap cocoa, keeping busy around 12 500 child laborers who present signs they have trafficked (Global Exchange 2007).


The root cause of this human rights issue is poverty, and what causes it. It is argued that the farmers of West Africa do not get fair prices for their cocoa, and the problem is, that they do not know what the fair prices should be (Off 2006, p. 116; Price 2007; Heim 2009). Rural farms don’t have access or understanding of reading the global market prices for their produce, which arguably, often leads to them selling their cocoa far below the fair price, thus giving food conglomerates the upper-hand bargains, as they later can sell their products to consumers at prices that are attractive and cheap. This is where supporting fair trade initiatives can play an important role. Often, the chocolate found on supermarket shelves is a result of these unfair trade prices, which keep cocoa famers poor and needing to cut costs, and this has left some of them resorting to buying children and forcing them to work to keep up with Western demand (Heim 2009). Human Rights Watch reports that “children as young as three years old [have been] exploited as domestic and agricultural workers... Traffickers lure children from their homes with promises of high-quality schooling and vocational training abroad. Many of the children are orphans, forced to become breadwinners following the death of a parent from AIDS or other causes (HRW 2003).” The organization further reports that in recent years this issue caused an enormous shock when it was found out that almost 50 percent of the chocolate in the US could be traced back to child harvesters in Côte d’Ivoire, and “many of [the] children had been trafficked from neighboring countries…(HRW 2003).”





Child trafficking in the cocoa trade is a subject of serious concern. As Amnesty International reports (2007), an effort to instigate change led to an initiative in 2001, in which US Congress publicly recognized what was happening, launched an international agreement to put an end to child labour, which became known as the “Cocoa Protocol”. However, just like the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the case of mining companies, the protocol is voluntary and therefore there is no way to regulate it. Corporations have been against it from the beginning, and because of this, critics argue that it has not stopped the buying and selling of children on the continent (Amnesty 2007).


Pirylis 2009



It appears, as with many other commodities, that the desire for growing corporate wealth seems to be more important than the livelihoods of the developing world. Products of dominating companies like Mars/M&M, Hershey’s, Nestle and Cadbury are in constant demand and this has led to cocoa farmers needing to lower production costs in order to produce more, not only having their own children work for them on the farms, but also buying and selling children to a life of farm forced labour (Global Exchange 2007; Taylor 2007; Qureshi 2008;).

Fairtrade Foundation 2009

However, there is hope. As the world has seen, with use of media and government campaigns, the world has become far more aware of the issue of climate change. Therefore, there is every reason to hope that the more consumers are made aware of child labour that has produced their chocolate bar, cake or drink, the less they will want to buy the product, unless they know that it is ‘clean’. “Fairtrade sales still represent less than 1 percent of all chocolate sales”, however with more consumer support, it will have the opportunity to grow (Qureshi 2008).



References


Amnesty 2007, ‘West Africa: Chocolate - Amnesty International expresses alarm at continuing child labour in cocoa industry’, Amnesty International website, viewed 22 May 2009.

Global Exchange 2007, ‘The Truth Behind M&M/Mars Claims About the Protocol and Fair Trade’, Global exchange website .

HWR 2003, West Africa: Stop Trafficking in Child Labor, Human Rights website, viewed 22 May 2009.

Heim, K 2009, ‘Gates Foundation grant for cocoa group raises a rights issue’, McClatchy - Tribune Business News, 22 February 2009 , Retrieved June 7, 2009 (ProQuest).

Lobe, J 2002, ‘New Initiative to Combat Child Slave Labor’, Global Policy Forum website, viewed May 24 2009.

Off, C 2006, Bitter Chocolate:Investigating The Dark Side of he World’s Most Seductive Sweet, Random House Canada.

Sean Price. (2007, January). LOST Childhoods. Junior Scholastic, 109(11), 10-12. Retrieved May 16, 2009, from Research Library database.

Taylor, F 2007, ‘M&M / Mars Facing Boycott’, Sentinel, February 22, Vol.
76, Iss. 29, p. A 21, Retrieved May 15, 2009, from (ProQuest).

Qureshi 2008, ‘Blood Chocolate – Just a Desert’, The Humanist website, viewed May 22, 2009.