Grandstand. Chocolate is the most popular confectionery in the world, tasted with relish by billions of people. At a time when consumers are attaching more and more importance to issues related to the environment, the issue of the sustainability of chocolate is at the center of the debate. At the heart of the problem is the endemic poverty in which many cocoa farmers find themselves.
On February 23, the European Union (EU) adopted the proposal for Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which aims to engage companies in greater responsibility in respecting human rights and environmental impacts throughout their supply chains. It also plans to ban the import into the EU of products associated with deforestation, requiring companies to prove that their production does not contribute to environmental degradation.
Cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is directly concerned. The proposed directive is in itself a major step forward, but while it is aimed at multinationals to hold them accountable, it seems, for the moment, to miss its mark, because the multinationals still take the lion’s share. As it stands, the text does not address the crucial issue of farmers’ incomes in cocoa-producing countries, thus neglecting the actors with the lowest incomes and yet essential to the production of this globally consumed sweet.
74% of world production in West Africa
The global cocoa supply chain is characterized by a profoundly unequal distribution of income among its various actors. On the one hand, a chocolate industry dominated by a small group of booming multinationals with a market estimated at 138 billion dollars (124 billion euros) in 2022. On the other, millions of farmers from the cocoa producing countries in Africa, Central and South America and Asia.
Nearly 95% of the world’s cocoa is grown on small, self-sufficient farms, spanning 1 to 3 hectares. Cocoa production in West Africa currently accounts for 74% of world production. More specifically, the world’s two leading producers are Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
However, while the cocoa industry is dependent on production from West Africa, the gap in value distribution seems wider than ever, as local farmers have the lowest incomes in the sector.
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