While most people enjoy chocolate, it’s no treat for the hundreds of thousands of labourers who pick the cocoa that goes into some of our favourite sweets.
Children and other workers are forced to work long days picking and processing cocoa beans (it takes 400 of these pods to make just one pound of chocolate) and very little of the profit goes to the farmers who grow the cocoa beans.The difficulty in making a living at cocoa farming has spawned an increase in child and even slave labour.
Fairtrade cocoa offers farmers an opportunity to make a real living, and provides consumers a trusted guarantee that no forced or abusive child labour was used in the making of the product.
Chocolate, chocolate drinks, and cocoa made from Fairtrade certified cocoa and Fairtrade certified sugar were introduced to the ANZ market in 2005 with great success.
A range of Easter Eggs made from Fairtrade certified cocoa was launched in Australia and New Zealand in time for Easter 2007.
For more information on cocoa, see the FLO website here.
Go here to read more about the issues and Fairtrade impacts associated with cocoa and chocolate production, including watching a short video online by Reuters on cocoa production in Ghana.
You can search our 'Where To Buy' database to find suppliers of Fairtrade chocolate and cocoa products in Australia and New Zealand