Chocolate and Child Labour
The company trying to end child labour in chocolate production
Most of the world's cocoa beans come from farms in West Africa rife with illegal child labour and slavery. One small chocolate company in Europe is making a mark with its efforts to tackle the problem.
'If you realize kids are producing the chocolate we love, then you know something needs to change', says Henk Jan Beltman, CEO of Tony's Chocolonely, a chocolate company trying to eradicate illegal child labour from the supply chain. They're also working with other companies, 'making it easy for other brands to plug into a proven and working cocoa flow', explains one employee. But some are sceptical. 'A lot of these voluntary initiatives have made little difference. When it becomes compulsory that companies have to be responsible for what happens in the supply chain - that's where we make an impact', says Nyagoy Nyong'o, global CEO of Fairtrade International.
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