Do Cocoa Plantation Slaves in West Africa Produce Your Favorite Chocolate?
There are at least 12,000 "cocoa slaves" who have been trafficked to the Ivory Coast in western Africa, where 43% of the world's cocoa is grown, Steve Chalk, chair of Stop the Traffik, said yesterday at the first ever global forum to fight human trafficking. Source Here
These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolates and drinking chocolate which we buy is made using slave cocoa. The slaves are beaten by the overseer. They are not fed properly. They work long hours. They are locked up in a slave barracks at night. They are beaten and often killed if they try to escape.
The problem for consumers is to know the difference between slave cocoa and free cocoa. Obviously, no manufacturer labels its product as "Cocoa Grown With Slave Labor".
Since the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (the largest exporter of cocoa with plantations were slaves work), exports from that country have decreased and cocoa prices have increased, so that there has been a decline in the use of slaves on the plantations.
US-based Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Hershey Foods, Swiss-based Nestle and Britain's Cadbury Schweppes and other leading producers jointly make more than $100 billion annually from chocolate. They are making making efforts to eliminate the problem.
Continued exploitation of children in cocoa industry
April 3, 2007
Read the BBC World Service report
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY
Prisoners of Commerce
There are at least 12,000 "cocoa slaves" who have been trafficked to the Ivory Coast in western Africa, where 43% of the world's cocoa is grown, Steve Chalk, chair of Stop the Traffik, said yesterday at the first ever global forum to fight human trafficking. Source Here
These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolates and drinking chocolate which we buy is made using slave cocoa. The slaves are beaten by the overseer. They are not fed properly. They work long hours. They are locked up in a slave barracks at night. They are beaten and often killed if they try to escape.
The problem for consumers is to know the difference between slave cocoa and free cocoa. Obviously, no manufacturer labels its product as "Cocoa Grown With Slave Labor".
Since the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (the largest exporter of cocoa with plantations were slaves work), exports from that country have decreased and cocoa prices have increased, so that there has been a decline in the use of slaves on the plantations.
US-based Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Hershey Foods, Swiss-based Nestle and Britain's Cadbury Schweppes and other leading producers jointly make more than $100 billion annually from chocolate. They are making making efforts to eliminate the problem.
Continued exploitation of children in cocoa industry
April 3, 2007
Read the BBC World Service report
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY
Prisoners of Commerce
Alert the media. 
