Chocolate industry: Less child labor, but rainforests still at risk – CGTN

Our growing demand for chocolate has for decades driven deforestation in West Africa. 

Trees are being felled – often illegally – to grow cocoa beans that supply global companies, depleting natural forests in places like Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire by up to 90 percent over the past 60 years. Despite companies making progress on sustainable sourcing, the woodland in those two countries remains under threat.

However, the working conditions of a number of farmers have improved, says Matthias Lange from the International Cocoa initiative. “There has been really a significant change in the past 10 years, so the effort is real and the impact is there.”

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According to Lange, local administration and chocolate producers managed to reduce child labor by a third where the necessary activities were implemented. But “what we need is more, better and quicker (action),” he adds. “There is a significant income gap for cocoa farmers, which is more than $1,000 or $2,000 per year so that they can make a good living.”

“It’s important to know where the chocolate comes from and that its production is respectful of everyone,” chocolate lover Anais Nicolussi tells CGTN in a chocolate boutique in Vevey, the birthplace of Switzerland’s chocolate production.

Vevey is also home to Swiss multinational food giant Nestlé, which sources its cocoa beans from West Africa. In recent years, Nestlé has been trying to reforest some of the degraded areas and has begun offering incentives to cocoa farmers, to adopt more sustainable practices. In the past year, 17,000 families received cash payments of up to 540 Dollars.

“We don’t just focus on the cocoa,” Nestlé’s Darrel High tells CGTN. “We look at the other sources for income generation for the family as well. And this could be keeping livestock, it could be growing crops.”

Nestlé’s competitor Mars has been testing solutions to boost crop productivity. But trying to unlock those gains has remained elusive. 

Meanwhile, Ghana’s government has accused chocolate producers of taking a siloed, competitive approach, rather than putting their energies together.

However, with the EU and the UK both seeking to ban the import of illegally produced forest-risk cocoa, there are positive signs of more collaborative approaches in the future.

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