A survey has revealed that some of the world’s biggest chocolate companies have done relatively poor in helping to address challenges associated with cocoa farming and the lives of cocoa farmers. This came to light when Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), such as EcoCare Ghana in partnership with Be Slavery Free (Australia) and Mighty Earth (USA) launched the 2023 Chocolate Scorecard in Ghana to rank the performance of some 83 big companies that deals with cocoa and its related products across the world. The 2023 Chocolate Scorecard ranked Original Beans and Tony’s ChocoLonely as the most sustainable chocolate companies, followed by Beyond Good. Meanwhile, General Mills and Walmart received the Rotten Egg Award for their lack of public policies and commitment to their cocoa procurement. Speaking to Gh Environment after the launch, the Managing Campaigner of EcoCare Ghana, Obed Owusu-Addai, explained that the 83 companies were ranked based on categories, which include Traceability Transparency, Child Labour, Living income, Deforestation and Climate and Chemical management which he says most of the companies failed completely on the categories. According to him, the survey found that the sustainability claims of chocolate companies cannot necessarily be trusted. Sustainability claims made by companies are defined narrowly to refer only to their programs, which may foster sustainable practices but do not refer to the actual status of their cocoa or necessarily improve the actual living conditions of cocoa farmers. He stated that, “It was found that only 11% of companies surveyed can fully trace where their cocoa comes from, further, on average 40% of cocoa is purchased indirectly meaning the buyer doesn’t know whom they bought from or where it came from. Without knowing where cocoa comes from you can’t possibly claim it is sustainable”. He maintained that farmers need to be paid more for their cocoa to ensure a sustainable life. “The account of poverty in cocoa growing communities, especially in West Africa, has been articulated extensively. Its connection to child labour, forced labour and human trafficking as well as the deforestation of national forests is indisputable”, he added. The survey according to him revealed that about 1.5 million children are involved in Child Labor in both Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire with the cocoa farmers suffering from extreme poverty as most of the companies failed to help fight these challenges.
Obed Owusu-Addai
Mr Owusu-Addai explained that cocoa is a major global driver of forest destruction, saying West Africa produces three-quarters of the world’s cocoa but Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire has respectively lost about 80% and 94% of their forests to cocoa production in the last 60 years. He said out of the 53 companies that responded, 48 of them have a no-deforestation policy in place. Mr Owusu-Addai also noted that, they made recommendations to the companies that took part in the survey and also to governments which he believes when they adhere to will go a long way in addressing the challenges. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the launch, Senior Director at Mighty Earth, Julian Oram bemoaned how cocoa farmers in Ghana are not earning enough despite playing a very important role in the multi-billion chocolate industry. He explained that as part of the work being done with the scorecard, the target is to get the chocolate companies to work with the cocoa farmers in Ghana to ensure they earn what they deserve. “Ghana is obviously one of the world’s leading producers of cocoa. So many of the companies that we surveyed either buy Cocoa directly from Ghana or use cocoa from Ghana in their chocolate manufacturing so of course the findings from this scorecard have relevance to Ghanaian farmers and Ghanaian traders. “Now what we will like to see more of is efforts by these companies to actually form relationships with Ghanaian farmers particularly to ensure that they are paid a fair price,” Julian Oram stressed. Indicating that the living income of cocoa farmers in Ghana has gone down in the last two years rather than up, the Mighty Earth Senior Director shared that it is because farmers aren’t earning enough from what they are being paid at the farm gate for their Cocoa. “So it’s really important that the companies we are surveying understand their responsibility and understand the issues like deforestation and child labour won’t go away until they address the problem of fair pricing for farmers,” Julian Oram argued.
The 2023 Chocolate Scorecard
The 2023 Chocolate Scorecard is led by three research institutions - Macquire University Sydney, The Open University, UK, and the University of Wollongong and coordinated by Be Slavery Free (Australia) and supported by a global coalition of NGOs including Green America, INKOTA, Mighty Earth, EcoCare Ghana, and the National Wildlife Federation.