This Panorama (BBC) documentary takes an undercover look at the cocoa trade.
More specifically, the human rights issues associated with this industry including child labour, child trafficking and slavery.
How do you feel after seeing this documentary?
Were you surprised to see this happening in the harvesting of cocoa beans?
Will it make you change your chocolate buying/eating habits?
Will you look to see if the chocolate you eat is "fair trade" or not in future, before you buy?
Who do you think should be held responsible for these abuses? The growers? the traders? the traffickers? the chocolate companies? (Nestle, Cadbury etc), how about the consumers (you and me)? Does buying chocolate (knowing that this goes on) make us partly accountable?
Post a comment -- have your say...
This video really shows us how many people are in child trafficking an its sad to see children having to work on these farms instead of going to school to get an education
ReplyDeletethis video is very inspiring. And this shows how hard kids our age have to work on cocoa farms in Africa and how we treat the chocolate that comes from their farms.Im going to be very careful on which chocolate I buy!!!!!!!!$$$$$
ReplyDeleteIts good that the kid found his mum
ReplyDeletethis video is very sad. Because these children have been forced to work on a cocoa farm. The children don't even go to school to get an education.
ReplyDeletei feel that nestle and cadbury really need to improve their checks, also i was very surprised of how common it was for children to be put into slavery and miss out of an education i wish people did more about it.
ReplyDeleteYou can, Tonax. Put pressure on the companies to change their habits - email them and ask when they are planning to extend their Fairtrade range. They will only change when enough public pressure is put on them,,,
DeleteI mean this aint gonna stop me from buying chocolate but it does make me more cautious to look for the fair trade sign. Its also sux watching stuff like this and seeing kids our age that have to work those hard hours and get split from their family to work, dont go to skool, cant stop and rest like how we do. I think the ones that a responsible are us because where the ones that keep it going (if we didnt buy the chocolate their wont be chocolate companies).
ReplyDeleteNice comment here, Chase. You show good empathy & and understanding of the issues
Deletei think cadbury need to focus on making all their chocolate fair trade to support these children, and eventually put an end to child labour, because it is not fair that these children are not properly educated, or educated at all
ReplyDeleteToo right, Hez! Good comment
DeleteEmail Cadbury NZ and ask if they have plans to expand their Fairtrade range. At the moment it is pretty small.....
I did not know this happened before I watched this documentary. I think more people should know about this. It has definitely made me think about where chocolate has come from and that we are lucky to have an education.
ReplyDeleteDead right, Kane. We are luckier than a lot of the rest of the world in terms of access to health care, education etc. Sometimes we take this for granted...
DeleteAlthough there are also a lot of basic Human Rights issues that NZ faces too - like Child Poverty...
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your e-mail. At present our in New Zealand, Whittaker’s Creamy Milk 250g block and Dark Ghana 250g blocks are Fairtrade Certified. These are the only Fairtrade certified blocks at present, but rest assured that we regard it as a first step, not a goal achieved.
Whittaker’s use Ghanaian cocoa in our chocolate apart from one variety which uses beans from Madagascar. We do not use beans from the Ivory Coast.
We purchase the beans through the Ghana Cocoa Board which is the government organisation responsible for the marketing of the Ghanaian cocoa crop.
The Ghana Cocoa Board in partnership with other organisations is committed to ensuring that the cocoa industry in Ghana is conducted in a socially responsible manner.
However, presently we need to ensure the continuity and reliability of supply of Fairtrade ingredients before we can extend the Fairtrade certification to other varieties.
In Ghana, currently, there is only one Fairtrade Certified co-op, the Kuapa Kokoo. Our Fairtrade beans are supplied from this co-op but it is a risk to have only one source of supply.
There are more Fairtrade co-ops being developed but these are not yet certified. In addition, the sugar we purchase for the Fairtrade product is from Costa Rica. From a logistics view, this is much more difficult than purchasing sugar locally.
We are also members of the World Cocoa Foundation. The Foundation is conducting a lot of work in Ghana to eliminate child labour and improve the working conditions of farmers. Details of the programmes can be found on their website www.worldcocoafoundation.org
There are around 800,000 cocoa farms in Ghana so to ensure that they all operate in an ethical manner is a tremendous challenge. However, there are a number of organisations and manufacturers committed to achieving this objective. It is not perfect yet but that is the goal.
We hope this is information is of help.
Kind regards
Ashleigh Brightwell
P: +64 4 2375021 | F: +64 4 237 4743
PO Box 50139, Porirua 5024
24 Mohuia Cres, Elsdon, Porirua 5022
“Like” us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WhittakersNZ
-----Original Message-----
From: connormac534@gmail.com [mailto:connormac534@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 25 June 2014 12:24 p.m.
To: Ashleigh Brightwell
Subject: fair trade concern
Sent by: connor mackereth
Hi there
I am emailing with concern as why on 2 out of 22 different blocks of chocolate have the fairtrade logo on it?
also does the company have plans on extending its fair trade range to other products?
Kind regards
Connor Mackereth
Nice work, Connor!
ReplyDeleteGreat response from Whittakers here (probably from their PR team) - shows what they are doing and that perhaps they have longer terms plans to have more Fairtrade labelled products. Remember that Kuapa Kokoo were mentioned in the BBC documentary? Some good statistics here to remember for the end of unti test -- like the fact that there are around 80,000 cocoa farms in Ghana alone - so really difficult to ensure everyone is complying with certain labour laws.
Well done sending the email - I think you deserve a chocolate prize (Fairtrade, of course) :-)
Make that 800,000 cocoa farms!!
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