About cocoa
Most of the world's cocoa is grown in a narrow belt 10 degrees either side of the equator. Here the trees grow well in humid tropical climates with regular rains and a short dry season. West Africa produces 75% of the world's cocoa in Ghana, Côte D'Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon. South America and Asia produce the remaining 25% in Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia, India and Indonesia. Cocoa is grown almost entirely on smallholding farms where the whole family may work together at certain times of the year such as harvest. Cocoa farming is generally a small, unmechanised business. The fruiting patterns of cocoa trees and their location in the forest make mechanisation impracticable.
Where our cocoa comes from
In the early 1900s, William Cadbury made the decision to source cocoa, a vital ingredient for our chocolate brands, from Ghana, then known as the Gold Coast. He left São Tomé where forced labour was being used to harvest cocoa. We still source most of our cocoa from Ghana today, with some being sourced from Cote d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia and Nigeria. In the United Kingdom, all of our cocoa beans come from Ghana, although our cocoa butter and cocoa liquor may come from commodity suppliers spread more widely. Ghana has over half a million cocoa farmers working on smallholdings within communities that grow a mix of food for themselves and cash crops for onward sale.
Cadbury in Ghana
Our company has played an important role in developing the cocoa industry in Ghana, working with Ghanaians to establish high standards of cocoa farming and to play a positive role in cocoa growing communities. In fact, Ghana's cocoa is recognised as being of the highest quality and we are still working today to ensure this continues.
There are many environmental and social challenges faced by the cocoa industry. We have a responsibility to ensure that farmers and their families have a decent livelihood and that the cocoa and other crops the farmers grow yield a sufficient income to support families and villages. We are keen to make sure there is enough investment for future supply and that the highest international labour standards are observed. Our ethical sourcing strategy helps ensure this happens.
Cadbury and industry actions and responses
Cadbury's activities have been part of an international programme co-ordinated by the global chocolate and cocoa industry.
We know that children traditionally help out on family farms in West Africa, as they do in every part of the world. The International Labour Organisation see ‘child work’ as acceptable and this is defined as a few hours of light work a week after school or at the weekends. This can be challenging, especially at harvest times and, in many parts of the world, school holidays are actually focused around traditional harvest periods even though children may no longer take part.
In order to help investigate and address this risk, the international cocoa industry and the Governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have been undertaking farm and community level assessment work with the intention of “certifying” both countries cocoa production. The target was to cover 50% of cocoa production in the two countries by 1st July 2008, and this has been achieved, with the recognition of the two US politicians (Senator Harkin and Congressman Engel) who initially drove this action forward through what has become known as the “Harkin-Engel protocol” which many chocolate industry players signed up to in America. (Cadbury, not being a US based chocolate company, is not a signatory but we fully support the work and have been leaders in the activity in Ghana.) It is also worth noting that this certification work has now been independently verified by a multidisciplinary group of NGO and trade union representatives who are working separately from the industry/Government work.
The recent Certification survey in Ghana has found children working when they should be at school and children carrying heavy loads. In order to address this situation we are working with communities to address the underlying causes of child labour. We are one of the industry funders of the multidisciplinary and independent International Cocoa Initiative where industry, NGOs and the trade union movement are working together to help define best practice in tackling questions of child labour in cocoa. The ICI runs a programme called Yen Daake ‘Our Future’, where communities themselves have defined their vision for the future of their village with support from local NGOs. As part of this they agree the role of children in the community and agree what jobs they should and shouldn’t be doing. See ICI’s website. www.cocoainitiative.org/
While Certification provides a report on the situation, we believe that the investment through the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership and our partnership with Fairtrade works to address the causes of the situations we find and support a holistic solution to the issue. For example, by improving farmer incomes and access to education we can encourage more children to attend school. Working as we do in partnership with the Ghanaian Government, NGOs, UNDP and Ghanaian farmers and their communities, can help to tackle the wider social, economic and environmental issues that cocoa farmers and their families face. This sits alongside the work of the ICI, the work of the Ghanaian Government, the work of the Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) and the cocoa industry to help train farmers and improve productivity.
Fundamental to any actions or programmes undertaken is the need to work in partnership with the democratically elected Government. We have to respect the sovereignty of the country and the knowledge and expertise of those in the country.