Walk through any supermarket at this time of year and you will probably find a whole aisle devoted to chocolate Easter eggs. Colourful boxes of all shapes and sizes, stacked from floor to ceiling with glimpses of shiny foil-wrapped eggs inside. They look tempting, especially with prices starting from as little as £1. But in an industry rife with child labour, trafficking, slavery, deforestation and poverty, do you really know where your chocolate has come from? Here we delve into the facts around the cocoa industry, and look at how to choose ethical Easter eggs.
Chocolate, child labour and slavery – the bitter truth
The US Department of Labor announced in December 2020 that over 1.5 million children are working illegally in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, many of which have been trafficked and held as slaves. Ethical issues with poverty, slavery and child labour have been exposed in some cocoa-producing countries, with many large chocolate manufacturers turning a blind eye to such practices despite making empty pledges to end them.
A law suit was brought in the US against Mars, Nestle, Hershey, Cargill and other chocolate companies on behalf of six formerly enslaved children who were trafficked from Mali to the Ivory Coast and forced to harvest cocoa for plantations that sourced Nestle and Cargill. The case was heard by the US Supreme Court in December 2020, but the court ruled that there was no legal standing as the abuse happened outside the US. For more details about the law suit, please see the International Rights Advocates website.
Recently, the anti-slavery brand Tony’s Chocolonely admitted in its annual ‘fair report’ that at least 1,700 child labourers were involved in the making of its chocolate last year. Tony’s use the Swiss firm Barry Callebaut to process its chocolate, which itself recently identified 21,258 cases of child labour in its supply chain. And for this reason, Tony’s was removed from the Slave Free Chocolate list last year.
So is my chocolate ethically sourced?
But how do you know whether your chocolate is ethically sourced or not? It’s very easy for chocolate brands to make claims on their websites, but often these give you no assurance as to the origin of their products.
So here are a few things we think you can do to make sure your chocolate is ethically sourced:
- Do your research. According to the organisation Slave Free Chocolate, the best we can do as consumers is to look out for ‘a Fair Trade, organic label or an explanation of why the source is child labour free’. Read their websites and labels and ask yourself how these companies are doing their bit to eliminate child labour and slavery in the cocoa industry.
- Is your chocolate ridiculously cheap? Chances are, there’s a reason. Ask yourself how chocolate companies can make profit and pay their suppliers a fair price for their goods, while they charge next to nothing for their products.
- Shop independent. Independent shops (especially health food stores) will most likely have chosen their chocolate on the grounds of its ethical value.
- Look at the Slave Free Chocolate list. According to their website, ‘certification programs only go so far’ to eradicating child labour and slavery. Their website helpfully lists a number of chocolate companies that only use ethically grown cocoa, including two of our favourites, Montezuma and Ombar.
Some of our favourites
We want the chocolate on our shelves to be not only delicious and nutritious, but also ethically sourced and child labour free. Which is why we choose brands like Montezuma, Ombar and Booja Booja:
- Montezuma work with a number of suppliers to ensure that all their ethically sourced chocolate meets ‘stringent ethical criteria and certifications’, and pay fair prices to farmers.
- Ombar source cacao from cooperatives owned by farmers growing a variety of different crops, never large monoculture plantations. They pay higher than fair trade prices to give farmers a better income.
- Booja Booja also prioritise fair and ethical trading with their suppliers. Their beautiful hand-painted Easter Eggs are made by a social enterprise in Kashmir, India, which has grown from 30 artists to 150 people.
For our range of Booja Booja ethical Easter eggs, click here.
And what about sustainability?
‘Sustainability’ is another buzzword which is thrown around by many companies, but how do you know the environmental impact of the chocolate you buy?
Firstly, look at the ingredients list – if your chocolate contains palm oil, it may not be as sustainable as it claims. Palm oil is often used in chocolate manufacturing, at a huge environmental cost in the deforestation of tropical forests, soil erosion and pollution. Even sustainable palm oil may have issues – with Amnesty International finding child and forced labour in the supply chain of several large corporations, despite such companies being members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Look at the packaging of your chocolate. Is it plastic free, recyclable, or compostable? Or does it contain large amounts of single use plastic?
But the good news is…
Feeling powerless? The good news is that we as consumers have power – power to choose what we buy, and to pressure companies and governments for the importation of ethical, child labour and slavery free chocolate. Raise awareness and spread the word! All of us have a part to play in ending these horrific business practices – and that starts with choosing your Easter egg.