Did you know that the chocolate industry is worth $100 billion and more than 60% of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa? The ivory coast alone is responsible for producing 40% of the world's cocoa i.e. 2 million tons a year and it accounts for 15% of the country’s GDP. That would make you believe that the cocoa farmers in West Africa make a lot of money, right? Wrong.
There are 5 million cocoa farmers in West Africa and just 5 major corporations buying the cocoa from these farmers. So, it is not difficult to understand who has the bargaining power.
The price of cocoa per KG for a farmer is set as a percentage of the London market price. In 2018, the price was set at about $1.5 per KG. Each cocoa tree produces about 1 KG of cocoa in a year. So, an average cocoa farmer in Africa makes about $200 a year i.e., less than $1 a day.
This unbalanced wealth distribution between the farmers and big corporations has led to modern-day slavery on the ivory coast. Children are trafficked into the cocoa farms and are made to work as slaves to get more profits and lower the cocoa production cost. About 1.3 Million children work illegally in West Africa. There have been laws made to forbid slavery, but the west African governments do not have the budgets to enforce it.
The farmers just have 1 option to overcome poverty: Grow more cocoa. The farmers grow cocoa in protected national forests where the soil is more fertile to supplement their farm cocoa harvest. But you have to chop down trees to make way for an illegal cocoa farm. And that is what the farmers do. The ivory coast has lost around 85% of its forest cover since 1990.
But one man is trying to change it all. Axel Emmanuel is a chocolatier in Abidjan where he employs local women, purchases cocoa from local farmers, and makes his own chocolate. His story was featured in the Netflix documentary – Rotten this year and I was lucky enough to speak with him and listen to his thoughts. So here is my conversation with Axel, who joined me from Abidjan, the ivory coast in west Africa.
