Facts About Cocoa Production
Courtesy of Co-op America

• 90 percent of the world's cocoa is grown on small family farms of 12 acres or less.
• Americans spend almost $13 billion per year on cocoa products, but producers see little of this revenue. The    average annual cocoa revenue ranges from $30 to $110 per household member for a cocoa-growing family.
• West African countries are dependent on cocoa revenue. Cote D'Ivoire supplies more than 40 percent of the    world's cocoa.
• Cocoa is the main income source for most family farmers in West Africa. In many families, children work on    cocoa farms with their family members to make as much money as possible. In the Ivory Coast, one-third of    cocoa farmers' children have never attended school.
• Trafficked child labor and child slave labor are also problematic in the cocoa industry. According to the    International Labor Rights Fund, “the fact that child slaves are utilized in the harvesting of cocoa beans in Cote    D'Ivoire, the world's major supplier of cocoa, is undisputed. The U.S. State Department estimates that there    are approximately 15,000 children working on cocoa, coffee and cotton farms in Cote D'Ivoire.”
• In 2001, following media reports revealing problems of trafficked child labor in Cote D'Ivoire, the Chocolate    Manufacturers Association, representing the chocolate industry, signed on to the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which    outlined steps to be taken to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The most significant piece of the protocol    called for the development and imple- mentation of a credible, public certification system of cocoa beans to    ensure that they have been grown and/or processed without any of the worst forms of child labor, including    slave labor and trafficked labor. To date, this certification process has not been implemented.
• Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa producers are guaranteed a fair price: a minimum of $1,750 per metric ton or    $1,950 per metric ton of organic cocoa. If the world price rises above $1,600 per metric ton, the Fair Trade    price meets the world price and adds a $150 Fair Trade premium per metric ton plus an additional $200 per    metric ton for organic.
• Many Fair Trade producer cooperatives use their Fair Trade premiums to invest in community projects such as    construction of schools and health clinics, as well as providing organic agriculture training. Look for a Fair    Trade producer.
• Over 50,000 cocoa growers in 11 countries are members of Fair Trade cooperatives. Fair Trade cocoa is    grown in Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Cote D'Ivoire,    Nicaragua and Peru. Purchase cocoa products from these locales.

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