The public has beed aware of the sweatshop in clothing production, but we rarely question whether the chocolate production process is a fair one. There is a bitter truth behind the sweet chocolate. The chocolate is made of coca and over 43% of coca is provided by the Ivory Coast in Africa. In the coca farms, the workers work in a dangerous condition and they receive under poverty wage. Moreover, many of the workers are only kids under 14. They work over 14 hours a day and sleep only for a few hours. They receive almost no wages and sometimes they bear beating. For the over – exploitive job, the kids are forced to leave school. The cocoa industry is controlled by a few companies around the world. The chocolate companies like Nestlé claim that they are not accountable for coca production, so even though they know the bitter experience in the coca farm, they don’t want to change.
What we can do is buying Fair Trade certificated chocolate. We can find TransFair USA’S Fair Trade logo on them. In this way, we consumers can push the companies take responsibility of their coca farm workers who produce coca for them. Fair Trade certification ensures no abusive and dangerous work condition and no children workers.
The Fair Trade chocolate only takes 1% of the large chocolate market. Since we have known the bitter truth behind chocolate, we will do something for the kids and workers.