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Fair trade cocoa

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Cacao seed in the fruit or pocha from the Theobroma cacao tree
Cocoa seeds being dried before roasting
Cocoa seeds being roasted

Fair trade cocoa' is an agricultural product harvested from the cacao tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families.[1][2] Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.

Background

In the 1990s, approximately 90 percent of the world’s cocoa was produced on small, family managed farms, primarily in West Africa and Latin America. Local collectors and intermediaries purchase and transport the cocoa to exporters and processors. Many farmers are unaware of the final destination and value of their cocoa.[3] Low prices and increasing need for fertilizer often created labor shortage, leading to child and slave labor in many West African countries with cocoa production.[citation needed]

Fair trade cocoa certification was created to overcome these problems. The first fair trade certification of a cocoa product was arranged by the Max Havelaar Foundation of the Netherlands in 1994. The product was Green & Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate, which was made with cocoa from Belize. The Max Havelaar Foundation was also the first Fairtrade Certification Mark. The Dutch foundation has now incorporated itself into Fairtrade International (FLO), a nonprofit organization with 25 member countries that use fair trade certification labels.

In 2002, Fair Trade USA, which at that time had been incorporated into Fair Trade International (FLO), started certifying fair trade cocoa products sold in the United States.[4] In September 2011, Fair Trade USA split from Fair Trade International (FLO).[4]

In 2001, the issue of forced labour in cocoa production was brought to the public's attention by a series of articles published in the United States by Sudarsan Raghavan, Sumana Chaterjee, and the Knight Ridder news agency. They included interviews with victims of child trafficking for cocoa production. Noting that the United States has laws against importing goods produced using slave labor, Congressman Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin proposed to enact a “slave-free” label for chocolate. The United States cocoa industry lobbied against this, and the mandatory labeling proposal was reduced to a voluntary system. Under this system, known as the Harkin–Engel Protocol, chocolate producers pledged that by July 1, 2005, they would use “standards…consistent with applicable federal law, that ensure cocoa beans and their derivative products have been produced without the worst forms of child labor.”[5]

The publicity surrounding these events increased consumer demand for fair trade certified chocolate.

Fair Trade Cocoa Criteria

Although the criteria for fair trade cocoa certification vary amongst different organizations, the following criteria are standard: 1) Fair Trade standards assist farmers to organize as cooperatives and associations so they can earn fair prices for their products.[6] 2) Fair Trade certification organizations regularly inspect cocoa producers to insure that they meet child labor standards. Fair Trade acts immediately when infractions are found to protect the children involved and secure their safety. 3) Fair Trade standards promote environmental sustainability in producing cocoa crops. They prohibit the use of dangerous agro-chemicals and GMOs. 4) The Fair Trade price guarantees that farmers are paid a sustainable price for their product.[7] In cocoa cooperatives, buyers also contribute money to community development, allowing cocoa farmers to increase product quality, build infrastructure, train workers, bring safe drinking water to their communities and establish local health clinics and schools.

Fair Trade Cocoa Products in the United States

As of 2010, there were 62 cocoa-growing cooperatives in the US fair trade system. The producers supplying the U.S. fair trade cocoa are located in Bolivia, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Panama and Peru.

In 2010, the amount of fair trade certified cocoa and chocolate products in the United States increased drastically, with a 67 percent increase from 2009. However, this is a small percentage of the total market for cocoa products.[8] Also, in the USA products which have as little as 11% fair trade-produced cocoa can be labelled as Fair Trade Chocolate.[9] In some cases, if other ingredients besides cocoa are fair trade, the amount of fair trade cocoa may be less.[10]

In January 2010, Kit Kat converted its Kit Kat bar to use fair trade certified cocoa.[11]

Economic Impact

Additional Income for Farmers

In the past thirty years, cocoa prices have been as low as $714 per ton in 2000 to as high as $3,775 per ton in spring of 2011. Although the market price of cocoa fluctuates, fair trade certification has created a minimum price for which the cocoa farmers must be paid per ton.[12] The farmers receive either the market price or the fair trade minimum, whichever is higher.[13] In January 2011, Fairtrade International (FLO) created an international standard for the minimum price fair trade cocoa farmers receive per ton of cocoa. It was increased from $1600 to $2000 per metric ton of cocoa.

Since 1998, Fair Trade USA has helped US-based companies using fair trade cocoa to generate more than $220 million in additional income for their cocoa cooperative farming communities.

Community Development

Since 2002, $1.25 million has been paid by Fair Trade USA certified cocoa companies directly to fair trade cocoa cooperatives for community development projects. These additional funds allow cocoa farming communities to attain programs that create better access to health care and education, support women, and protect the environment. Fair Trade USA’s cocoa cooperatives are largely in West Africa and Latin America.

Political Impact

In Côte d'Ivoire, where much of the country's wealth and employment is based on cocoa production,[14] the government and the rebel group Forces Nouvelles (FN) are competing for fair trade cocoa producing land; revenues from the cocoa trade have contributed to funding armed conflict.[14] After the 2010 presidential election, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo alleged corruption in the voting process and refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner. Ouattara called for a ban on cocoa exports in order to cut off Gbagbo’s main funding source. The European Union (EU) endorsed the ban and forbade ships from the EU to dock in Côte d'Ivoire. Cocoa farmers continued to harvest their cocoa beans, but the majority of beans were stored in warehouses and not exported. Some cocoa was smuggled through neighboring countries.

Environmental Impact

A life cycle analysis study of the environmental impact of cocoa production in Ghana, the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, shows that the majority of cocoa production in Ghana is not environmentally sustainable, [15] causing a variety of problems ranging from ozone layer depletion, water and soil contamination by pesticides.[15] to atmospheric acidification and abiotic depletion.[15]

In order to obtain fair trade certification, cocoa producer companies are required to follow to fair trade environmental standards. On a case by case basis, they must assess the environmental impacts of a cocoa farmer’s operations, develop plans designed to mitigate those impacts and monitor the implementation of those plans. Although the environmental standards for fair trade certification vary by organization, they all include sustainable irrigation practices, crop rotation, reducing carbon emissions, improving biodiversity, prohibiting GMO crops, safe use of only legal pesticides and proper hazardous waste disposal.

Company Responses to the Fair Trade Cocoa Movement

Hershey

Advocates of Fair Trade Cocoa had been urging Hershey, a large chocolate manufacturer with more than 40% of the United States market, to shift into fair trade cocoa production[16] by creating fair trade cooperatives with their cocoa producers in West Africa.[16] As of 2012, these efforts have met with little success.[17]

Ben & Jerry’s

American ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s committed to use fair trade certified cocoa in all its ice creams by 2013.[4]

Endangered Species Chocolate

Endangered Species Chocolate, a chocolate manufacturer in Indiana, had been fair trade certified up until 2006.[18] However, in February 2006, Endangered Species Chocolate removed its fair trade certification and instead guaranteed it would dedicate the money previously used for the fair trade certification to directly support the farmers in the Conacado Co-op, where the company continues to source its cocoa.[18] Endangered Species Chocolate continues to guarantee that its cocoa farmers in the Conacado Co-op are receiving a fair wage.[18]

Companies pay money to certifying organizations to receive certification,[19] and this money is not going to the cocoa farmers. On the other hand, a company that says that it is following fair trade practices but lacks a fair trade certification may not actually be following fair trade practices.

Child labour

Carol Off, author of Bitter Chocolate: Investigating The Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet, argues that the only solution to the issue of abusive child labor practices in cocoa production is to pay farmers a price at which they can employ adult workers.[20][20] Off asserts that in order to receive this price, farmers must organize themselves with the help of local government departments,[20] and be given access to accurate information about the world cocoa market price, through the Internet, so that they can bargain efficiently by themselves.[20]

Global Exchange, an international human rights organization, agrees that fair trade cocoa is a means of ending the use of child labor in cocoa production.[21] In 2001, the US cocoa industry set a goal to end abusive and forced child labor on cocoa farms by 2005 and outlined the basic steps the industry would have to take to achieve this goal.[21] By 2012, the goal had not been met.[21] Global Exchange has concluded that the industry will adopt fair trade certification when consumers demonstrate preference for fair trade cocoa through their chocolate purchasing choices.[21]

References

  1. ^ "Guide to buying Fair Trade chocolate". CanadianLiving.com. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  2. ^ Peter Oosterveer; David A. Sonnenfeld (25 June 2012). Food, Globalization and Sustainability. Routledge. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-1-136-52962-7.
  3. ^ "What's Fairer than Fair Trade? Try Direct Trade With Cocoa Farmers". YES! Magazine. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Fair Trade USA. [1]
  5. ^ "Cocoa sustainability goals should not exclude suppliers". Confectionery News. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  6. ^ Laura T. Raynolds; Associate Professor of English Douglas Murray; Douglas Murray; John Wilkinson (11 June 2007). Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization. Routledge. pp. 111–. ISBN 978-1-134-00263-4.
  7. ^ Alex Nicholls; Charlotte Opal (12 July 2005). Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption. SAGE Publications. pp. 133–. ISBN 978-1-4129-0105-5.
  8. ^ Peter Luetchford; Geert De Neve; Jeffery Pratt (12 September 2008). Hidden Hands in the Market: Ethnographies of Fair Trade, Ethical Consumption, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethnographies of Fair Trade, Ethical Consumption and Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 178–. ISBN 978-1-84855-059-9.
  9. ^ Keith R. Brown (15 April 2013). Buying into Fair Trade: Culture, Morality, and Consumption. NYU Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-8147-2539-9.
  10. ^ Sally Blundell (24 December 2013). The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade: New Edition. New Internationalist Publications, Limited. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-1-78026-133-1.
  11. ^ William Pride; Ferrell (10 April 2012). Marketing 2012. Cengage Learning. pp. 271–. ISBN 978-1-133-95350-0.
  12. ^ Rob Bowden (2009). Food and Water. Evans Brothers. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-0-237-53643-5.
  13. ^ Stephanie Barrientos; Catherine Dolan (2006). Ethical Sourcing in the Global Food System. Routledge. pp. 71–. ISBN 978-1-84407-189-0.
  14. ^ a b Global Witness. [2] 2007 Hot Chocolate: How cocoa fueled the conflict in Cote D’Ivoire.
  15. ^ a b c Ntiamoah, Augustine, with George Afrane. [3] 2007 Environmental impacts of cocoa production and processing in Ghana: life cycle assessment approach.
  16. ^ a b Newman, Tim, with Elizabeth O’Connel. [4] 2010 Time to Raise the Bar: The Real Corporate Social Responsibility for the Hershey Company.
  17. ^ April Linton (1 September 2012). Fair Trade from the Ground up: New Markets for Social Justice. University of Washington Press. pp. 31–. ISBN 978-0-295-80419-4.
  18. ^ a b c Knowmore.org. [5]
  19. ^ Nick Robins; International Institute for Environment and Development (1 January 2000). The Reality of Sustainable Trade. IIED. pp. 65–. ISBN 978-1-904035-64-0.
  20. ^ a b c d Off, Carol. [6] The Dark Side of Chocolate.
  21. ^ a b c d Global Exchange. [7] 2005 The News on Chocolate is Bittersweet: No Progress on Child Labor, but Fair Trade Chocolate is on the Rise.
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