2.5 Organic chocolate
Some chocolate companies use only organic chocolate in their products. Currently organic chocolate is only grown in the Central and South American regions, and not in West Africa, which makes all organic chocolate slave-free. In Central and South America, cocoa growing conforms to quite high quality and working condition standards, especially in Costa Rica.
Unfortunately, the benefit of eating it does not reach Côte d’ Ivoire. The very best option is to buy non-slave chocolate from companies that help slaves and cocoa farmers. Fairtrade, for example, works with some slave-free cocoa farms in Côte d’ Ivoire.( Go to page 14 to learn about Fairtrade). Many abolitionist groups encourage the consumption of slave-free chocolate from the West African region when possible.
Large companies( like Nestlé) will sometimes make a few organic or Fairtrade products to help their marketing, but still sell other slavemade chocolate products. Companies should prove a true commitment to the cause, as opposed to using the problem of child slavery solely for marketing purposes. However, companies can only sell if someone will buy. If consumers want something different, they will offer it.
2.6 Who consumes the most chocolate?
According to MarketsandMarkets, the annual chocolate industry is worth over € 63 642 622 200( US $ 83 200 000 000), which is not only enormous, but also appalling, considering that most of the people who supply the fuel for the industry, the cocoa farmers, live in poverty. Europeans account for nearly half of all the chocolate the world eats. The average Brit, Swiss or German will each eat around 10-11 kilograms of chocolate a year. In Asia, chocolate is not eaten as much; however Asian markets are expected to hold a 20 % share of the global market by 2016.
According to Stop the Traffik, only about 0.0075 % of the money made by the chocolate industry since 2001 has been invested into improving the conditions of children in West Africa.
Africa only accounts for about 3 percent of worldwide chocolate cunsumtion. Go to page 26 for import, export and consumption figures.
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