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Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry |
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 As we go about our work at Equal Exchange we try to encourage fellow businesses to embrace – as much as they can – alternatives like Fair Trade and organic agriculture. But sometimes the stakes are so high, and the prevailing industry norms so inadequate, we feel compelled to speak out more forcefully, as we will in this article.
At issue is the continuing practice of forced child labor in the West African cocoa trade—source of 70% of the world's cocoa — and how little the corporations of the global cocoa/chocolate trade (Hershey's, Mars, Nestlé, Cadbury, Cargill, ADM, etc.) have done to address this.
In 2000 and 2001 chocolate lovers around the world were jolted when British and American journalists documented the enslavement of adolescent and teenage boys on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. Most of the children come from Mali, Ivory Coast's poorer northern neighbor. Traffickers rely on the economic desperation of Malian families and entice naďve adolescents and teenagers with the promise of good jobs in the Ivory Coast. Even the prospect of buying a new bicycle or modest scooter can be enough to motivate a boy to sign up for a season of hard work. Later, once over the border, and separated from their community or others who speak their language, the children are sold to cocoa farmers. Some farmers will pay the children a small sum at the end of the cocoa season. Some will not. But more importantly some farmers will exploit the children’s vulnerability, forcing them to perform long, hard and dangerous work, while providing only minimal food and shelter. Some will beat and threaten those who try to escape, and at night lock the children in sheds or huts. It is these children, held captive and forced to work against their will, that are the focus of this crisis.
As the Ivory Coast alone produces 40% of the world's cocoa, its beans are mixed into almost every brand of mass-produced chocolate. Further, a handful of western corporations control approximately 85% of Ivorian cocoa exports. Therefore the large corporations have both the responsibility and the opportunity to use their unmatched power in the cocoa industry to tackle this unacceptable situation.
In 2001, after six months of public and government pressure representatives of the largest corporations in the cocoa and chocolate industry signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, championed by Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), and Rep. Elliot Engel (NY), wherein the companies promised to work "wholeheartedly" to "eliminate the worst forms of child labor" and to create by June 2005 a certification system to verify that this was being accomplished.
The protocol gave the industry years of relief from pressure or scrutiny as they repeatedly assured the public that they were dedicated to solving the problem. Unfortunately, little has in fact been accomplished in the last six years. Even Senator Harking and Congressman Engel had to admit this when it became clear that the industry was going to miss the Protocol's June 2005 deadline. Subsequently the cocoa/chocolate industry unilaterally moved the target date back to June 2008. They also dropped the goal of eliminating forced child labor and are instead promising only a monitoring operation. Even that is intended to cover only half the cocoa grown in two countries, The Ivory Coast and Ghana. Last year the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) provided a comprehensive update and analysis of the lack of progress towards the goals of the Protocol. In March the BBC documented that even some of the small projects held up by the industry as proof of their commitment and of the progress made to date, in fact prove the opposite.
In the meanwhile groups like the ILRF and Global Exchange have continued to pressure the industry. A key demand is that the large corporations begin buying Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa as it offers critical protections for workers and directly addresses the underlying problem of low cocoa prices and chronic poverty amongst cocoa farmers. Under Fair Trade standards the farmers and co-operatives must abide by key covenants of the International Labor Organization, including those forbidding inappropriate child labor, and forced labor. Also, unlike the proposals in the Harkin-Engel protocol the Fair Trade system is up and running today in most cocoa growing regions, and enjoys popular support in consuming countries. Yet, so far the industry has refused to incorporate Fair Trade practices into their cocoa sourcing.
At Equal Exchange all of our cocoa is sourced from Fair Trade Certified™, organic small farmer co-operatives in the Dominican Republic and Peru.
At Equal Exchange we regret that this issue has received little coverage by the media. One reason may be that many Americans find it hard to accept that slavery still exists in the world. This could because we usually associate “slavery” with only the institutionalized, state-sanctioned slavery practiced here until 1865, and don’t realize that not only does slavery take many forms, but that slavery has in fact persisted and proliferated in the world. The new book by abolitionist author David Batstone Not For Sale estimates the global number to be over 26 million persons. Surprisingly, it even continues here in the United States.
Click on these links to share your views with Sen. Harkin, Rep. Engel, and the Chocolate Manufacturers of America.
Feel free to reprint this article in your newsletter or blog. We only ask that you attribute the article to Equal Exchange, and if possible provide a link to the original at: http://www.equalexchange.com/child-labor-in-the-cocoa-industry
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