Your chocolate may contain traces of exploitation

In an inspiring campaign, Tony's Chocolonely shows other chocolate manufacturers how things can be done fairly

02-Feb-2024

Despite a large number of seals and initiatives that are supposed to certify sustainability and fair trade, major chocolate manufacturers still pay a cocoa price that means cocoa farmers earn below the minimum subsistence level. As a result, they are often forced to have their children work on cocoa plantations. 1.56 million children work on the 2.5 million cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire alone ( NORC Report 2020). To put this into perspective: in Germany, that would be more than every 7th child.

Tony's Chocolonely, the impact company that produces chocolate, is fighting against this with a clear mission: to make chocolate free from modern slavery and illegal child labor - every chocolate worldwide. With an inspiring campaign, Tony's Fair Alternative, Tony's Chocolonely wants to shake up the industry and make German consumers aware of the bitter aftertaste that can be found in their chocolate.

Almost all the same, except for one huge difference

Tony's has been inspired by major chocolate brands in terms of design and taste, but the doppelganger bars in very special packaging are different - they are Tony's fair alternative. The impact company wants to prove to other conventional manufacturers: You can make good chocolate and trade fairly. The difference? For the cocoa in its doppelganger bars - as with all Tony's Chocolonely bars - Tony's voluntarily pays all farmers a higher price, which enables them to earn a living wage.

But to really change the cocoa industry, the entire industry is needed. That's why Tony's Chocolonely's campaign demands that every chocolate manufacturer takes responsibility and enables all farmers in its supply chain to earn a living income. After all, a higher, fair price is demonstrably the most powerful factor in combating illegal child labor and would enable hundreds of thousands of families to live a better life. This campaign aims to draw attention to this.

Will this make chocolate more expensive?

It shouldn't, as studies such as the Cocoa Barometer 2020 show: large chocolate manufacturers only have to forgo a certain proportion of their profits. Tony's is already leading the way and inviting everyone to copy its business model.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1182627/your-chocolate-may-contain-traces-of-exploitation.html