Exclusive: Tony’s Chocolonely raises fresh concerns, as the globe marks World Day Against Child Labour

Ethically-focused impact brand Tony’s Chocolonely has raised fresh concerns over the welfare of minors in cocoa producing nations, in highlighting today’s World Day Against Child Labour, reports Neill Barston.

Established by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) nearly 25 years ago, the occasion has sought to shed a continued spotlight on a social issue that remains a significant matter across agricultural supply chains.

Indeed, as Tony’s Chocolonely highlighted, according to the most recent data available, there remains a total of 1.56 million children affected by the child labour in cocoa farming communities in West Africa, of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which accounts for two thirds of the market serving the international confectionery industry. 

Some 95%, of that total are still exposed to the worst forms of labour issues including heavy manual labour, crop spraying and harvesting with machetes, which is all work that should be done by adult labourers. The sheer scale of the challenge across all sectors remains huge – according to the ILO, a staggering total of 160 million children are subject to child labour around the globe in all industries.

As has been covered extensively by Confectionery Production magazine, the vast majority of the cocoa farming sector in West Africa remains along traditional smallholder led lines.

This has seen families effectively routinely forced to use their own children to help with many labour task, as a large volume of the region’s farmers (there are thought to be over two million, though no precise figures exist), earn below World Bank defined poverty wage levels, meaning they are unable to afford adult labourers to assist them with their agricultural operations.

In addition, as our title has already covered, from introducing significant pay rises last year in both Ghana and Ivory Coast (of up to 60%), which heralded much optimism in the sector, a rapid fall in commodity cocoa prices saw values tumble from $12,000 to $3,000 a tonne, which resulted in a corresponding major pay cut for farmers, leading to major concerns from local agricultural unions and a state of renewed crisis within the industry, as it scrambled to respond to rapidly unravelling market conditions.

Fairtrade action
This week, Fairtrade Foundation (which will speaking at our World Confectionery Conference this September)  produced an exclusive blog for our title on this very topic, asserting that the situation remains fragile in cocoa markets, but that it remains hopeful that its own plans for enhancing co-operative pay will prove decisive. 

For its part, Tony’s Chocolonely, has recognised that child labour still exists within its own supply chains, sourcing through major cocoa player Barry Callebaut, but it has moved to pay farmer premiums, and place significant resources in providing remediation for these instances, and has focused on solutions including agricultural training and helping provide access to greater levels of education for children.  

Commenting on World Day Against Child Labour, the business issued thought provoking imagery posing the point that children should be holding school bags rather than cocoa bags.

The Amsterdam-based firm, which has previously played a notable part in our World Confectionery Conference, stated on Linkedin; “Imagine kids in the Netherlands carrying cocoa instead of pencils + books. Nobody would accept that, so nobody should accept this.

“Child labour is a clear violation of human rights and local laws, and still it’s chocolate’s bitter truth.

“It’s easy to say, “those kids just need to go to school”.  But the problem is much more complicated than that.. The root cause? Poverty.

“Because for decades, millions of farmers have been underpaid for their cocoa, leaving them no choice but to turn to their kids for help on the farm. Tony’s exists to end this exploitation in cocoa, together with you. Bar by bar, bite by bite. Until cocoa farmers earn a living income and their kids get to play, learn and dream BIG.”