SOME CACAO AND CHOCOLATE FACTS
Cacao, or cocoa in English, used to produce chocolate,
is one of those crops for which farmers around the world are grossly
underpaid and in which child labor is an issue. Luckily, however,
fair trade prices for cocoa are becoming increasingly common and
fair trade chocolate is now available to those who look for it.
There is one fair trade cocoa coopertive that I know of in Cameroun.
The idea would be for Ndebofa's coopartive, called FUPROCAN to replicate
such an organization.
The average cocoa farmer makes 1 cents per 60 cent
candy bar.
The following facts are taken from the Coop America
webpage*.
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West African countries are dependent on cocoa.
The six largest cocoa producing countries are the Ivory Coast,
Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon. In Ghana, cocoa
accounts for 40% of total export revenues, and two million farmers
are employed in cocoa production. The Ivory Coast supplies 43%
of the world's cocoa, according to Global Exchange.
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In many families, the children work on farms
with their family members. In the Ivory Coast, 66% of cocoa
farmers have never attended school.
Trafficked child labor and child slave labor are also problematic
in this industry. According to a USAID and International Institute
of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) study in 2002, "an estimated
284,000 children are working in cocoa farms on hazardous tasks
such as using machetes and applying pesticides and insecticides
without the necessary protective equipment. Many of these children
work on family farms...but about 12,500 children working on
cocoa farms had no relatives in the area, a warning sign for
trafficking".
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TransFair USA Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa
producers are guaranteed a fair price: a minimum of $1750 per
metric ton or $1950 per metric ton of organic cocoa. If the
world price rises above $1600 per metric ton, the Fair Trade
price meets the world price and adds a $150 Fair Trade premium
per metric ton plus an additional $200 per metric ton for organic.
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Many Fair Trade producer cooperatives use their
Fair Trade premiums to invest in community projects such as
construction of schools and health clinics, as well providing
organic agriculture training.
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Over 50,000 cocoa growers in eleven countries
are members of Fair Trade cooperatives. Fair Trade cocoa is
grown in Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Cote D’Ivoire, Nicaragua, and Peru.
Sources and for futher information:
* Coop America: http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/fairtrade/products/chocolate.cfm
Lutheran World Relief Chocolate Cooperative in Ghana:
http://www.lwr.org/chocolate/
Fair Trade Federation: http://www.fairtradefederation.org/
Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International:
http://www.fairtrade.net/cocoa.html
TransFair USA: http://www.transfairusa.org/content/certification/cocoa_program.php
World Cocoa Foundation: http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/
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