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The widespread use of children in cocoa production is controversial, not only for the concerns about child labor and exploitation, but also because, as of 2001, up to 12,000 children working in Côte d'Ivoire, the world's biggest producer of cocoa, may have been victims of trafficking or slavery. Most attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69 percent of the world's cocoa, and Côte d'Ivoire in particular, which supplies 35 percent of the world's cocoa. Thirty percent of children under age 15 in sub-Saharan Africa are child laborers, mostly in agricultural activities including cocoa farming. It is estimated that more than 1.8 million children in West Africa are involved in growing cocoa. Major chocolate producers, such as Nestle, buy cocoa at commodities exchanges where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with other cocoa. In 2013-2014, an estimated 1.4 million children aged 5 years old to 11 years old worked in agriculture in cocoa-growing areas, approximately 800,000 of them engaged in hazardous work, including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads.
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Child labor definition
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labor as work that "is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; by obliging them to leave school prematurely; or by requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work." Not all work that children do is child labor. Work done that is not detrimental to children’s health, development or schooling is beneficial because it allows children to develop skills, gain experience and prepare them for future positions; these are not considered child labor.
The worst forms of child labor, related to cocoa production, are using children as slaves or in debt bondage, trafficking them, and forcing them to do hazardous work, which includes using dangerous machinery or tools, manually transporting heavy loads, working with hazardous agents or working long hours.
Production and consumption statistics
In Ghana, the cocoa industry began in the late 19th century and in Côte d'Ivoire it began in the early 20th century. Ghana became the largest cocoa producer in the world in 1910. By 1980 Côte d'Ivoire overtook Ghana as the biggest producer. In both countries, the majority of farms are small and family-owned. Family members, including children, are often expected to work on the farms.
In the 2008–2009 growing year (which runs October through September), 3.54 million tonnes of cocoa beans were produced. African nations produced 2.45 million tonnes (69%), Asia and Oceania 0.61 million tonnes (17%) and the Americas 0.48 million tonnes (14%). Two African nations, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, produce more than half of the world's cocoa, with 1.23 and 0.73 million tonnes respectively (35% and 21%, respectively).
Different metrics are used for chocolate consumption. The Netherlands has the highest monetary amount of cocoa bean imports (US$2.1 billion); it is also one of the main ports into Europe. The United States has highest amount of cocoa powder imports ($220 million); the US has a large amount of cocoa complementary products. The United Kingdom has the highest amount of retail chocolate ($1.3 billion) and is one of the biggest chocolate consumption per capita markets.
Cocoa plantations in Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Malaysia provide 80% of the world with chocolate, according to CorpWatch.[3] Chocolate producers around the world have been pressured to "verify that their chocolate is not the product of child labor or slavery."[4]
Children in cocoa harvest and processing
Cocoa trees are treated with pesticides and fungicides. Cocoa harvest is not restricted to one period per year and occurs over a period of several months to the whole year. Pods are harvested at multiple times during the harvest season because they do not all ripen at once. Pod ripening is judged by pod color, and ripe pods are harvested from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree with a curved knife on a long pole. The pods are opened and wet beans are removed. Wet beans are transported to a facility so they can be fermented and dried.
Many of these tasks could be hazardous when performed by children, according to the ILO. Mixing and applying chemicals can be hazardous due to pesticide contamination, especially because no protective clothing is worn during application. Clearing vegetation and harvesting pods can be hazardous because these tasks are often done using machetes, which can cause incision. This skill is part of normal development in children 15 to 17 years old, but is a higher risk in younger children. Many have wounds on their legs where they have cut themselves. Transport of the wet beans can also be hazardous due to long transport distances and heavy loads; hernias and physical injuries can occur. The director of the Save the Children Fund described "young children carrying 6 kilograms (13 lb) of cocoa sacks so heavy that they have wounds all over their shoulders."
In 2002, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture investigated the prevalence of child labor in the cocoa industry. They found 284,000 children working in hazardous conditions in West Africa. Of these, 153,000 were children who applied pesticides without protective equipment, others picked pods and opened them to get the beans; 64% of the children were younger than 14 and 40% of the children were girls. Children often began working at 6am, worked 12-hour days and were beaten regularly.
Education of child laborers
Child laborers are less likely to attend school. They are kept out of school because families need their help on the farms, and 12-hour workdays make it difficult to attend school. In Côte d'Ivoire, 34 percent of children on cocoa farms attended school compared to 64 percent of children who did not work on farms. Only 33 percent of children from immigrant cocoa workers attended school, while 71 percent of the local children attended school.
Child slavery and trafficking
In 1998, UNICEF reported that Ivorian farmers were using enslaved children — many from surrounding countries. A 2000 BBC documentary described child slavery on commercial cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire. In 2001, the US State Department estimated there were 15,000 child slaves in cocoa, cotton, and coffee farms in Côte d'Ivoire, and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association acknowledged that child slavery is used in the cocoa harvest.
Malian migrants have long worked on cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire, but in 2000 cocoa prices had dropped to a 10-year low and some farmers stopped paying their employees. The Malian counsel had to rescue boys who had not been paid for five years and who were beaten if they tried to run away. Malian officials believed that 15,000 children, some as young as 11 years old, were working in Côte d'Ivoire in 2001. These children were often from poor families or the slums and were sold for "just a few dollars" to work in other countries. Parents were told the children would find work and send money home, but once the children left home, they often worked in conditions resembling slavery. In other cases, children begging for food were lured from bus stations and sold as slaves.
In 2002, Côte d'Ivoire had 12,000 children with no relatives nearby, which suggested they were trafficked, likely from neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo. According to a 2009 snowball sampling study, the majority of those with childhood cocoa labor experience were trafficked (75% from Burkina Faso and 63% from Mali). The majority of those who were trafficked had no interaction with police, and only 0.5% had any contact from institutions that provided social services. Western African nations of Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Mali are on the 2009 US State Department's Tier 2 Watch List for human trafficking in part due to the trafficking of children in cocoa production. Burkina Faso and Togo are rated at Tier 2 in part due to trafficking for cocoa production.
The blame for the slavery in cocoa production has been passed from one group to the next. Those who sell the children to the farmers claimed they did not see the slavery. The Ivorian government accused foreigners of using and selling slaves and blamed multinational chocolate companies for keeping cocoa prices low and farmers in poverty; it claimed the low prices forced some farmers to use slave labor. The Ivorian prime minister, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, said the price would need to increase 10 times to ensure a good quality of life for the farmers and their families. Farmers who bought slaves blamed the worldwide cost of cocoa. Cocoa suppliers claimed they cannot manage what happens on the farms. Chocolate companies stated that the suppliers needed to provide cocoa that was not produced by slaves. Consumers did not know that their chocolate was produced using slave labor.
In 2001, due to pressure applied by the US Congress and potential US and UK boycotts, the chocolate manufacturers promised to start eliminating forced child labor. In 2012, Ferrero and Mars promised that they will end cocoa slavery by 2020.
In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a report on labor conditions around the world in which a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor mentioned 6 countries (among a total of 74) where the cocoa industry employed underage children and indentured laborers. Instances of child labor were reported in 4 of the listed countries namely Cameroon, Ghana, Guniea and Sierra Leone. The others (Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria) resorted to both child labor and forced labor.
Harkin-Engel Protocol
To combat child slavery in cocoa production, US Representative Eliot Engel introduced a legislative amendment to fund the development of a "no child slavery" label for chocolate products sold in the United States. Senator Tom Harkin proposed an addition to an agriculture bill to label qualified chocolate and cocoa products as "slave free". It was approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 291–115, but before it went to the Senate the chocolate makers hired former senators George Mitchell and Bob Dole to lobby against it, and it did not go to a vote. Instead, the chocolate manufacturers reached agreement with the Congressmen to create the Harkin-Engel Protocol to remove child slavery from the industry by July 2005. The voluntary agreement was a commitment by industry groups to develop and implement voluntary standards to certify cocoa produced without the "worst forms of child labor," and was signed by the heads of major chocolate companies, Congressmen, the Ambassador of Côte d'Ivoire, and others concerned with child labor.
The chocolate makers were to create programs in West Africa to make Africans aware of the consequences of child labor, keeping their children from an education, and child trafficking. The primary incentive for the companies' voluntary participation would be the addition of a "slave free" label. The 2005 deadline was not met, and all parties agreed to a three-year extension of the Protocol. This extension allowed the cocoa industry more time to implement the Protocol including creating a certification system to address the worst forms of child labor for half of the growing areas in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. By 2008, the industry had collected data forn over half of the areas, as required, but they did not have proper independent verification. In June 2008, the Protocol was extended until the end of 2010. At that time, the industry was required to have full certifications with independent verifications.
The European Union passed a resolution in 2012 to fully implement the Harkin-Engel Protocol and fight child labor in cocoa production. The resolution was criticized by the International Labor Rights Forum for having no legally binding measures and two major chocolate manufacturers claimed they were addressing the problem.
Studies and reports
Video productions
Position statements and legislation
In September 2005, Dutch member of parliament Femke Halsema filed a motion to abolish European imports of slave-processed cacao. Statements have been issued by Anti-Slavery International, the Anti-Slavery Society, Fred E. Foldvary, the Organic Consumers Association and StoptheTraffick UK.