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           5 millions. The number of cocoa producers in the world, most with extraction plots of less than 10 hectares and living under the poverty line, or $ 2 per day. And yet it is 5 multinationals, leaders of the world chocolate production, which produce over 80% of chocolate products! miserable income for producers, pollution of soil and water, deforestation, child labor ... How did we get here for a good piece of chocolate and what are the solutions? A study published this week, led by the Movement Fair demonstrates the stalemate in the conventional cocoa production is heading.

            The global chocolate market is expanding. At issue in particular, Asian countries such as China, which open in this market and also becoming big fans of chocolate confectionery. Thus, there are about 4 million tonnes of cocoa produced each year worldwide. However, this commodity now publicly traded almost exclusively from small family farms outsourced by multinationals. Farms that are under pressure of international lobbies. Indeed, if they are constantly seeking to keep the price of cocoa to the lowest, it is most often to the detriment of all sustainable social and environmental conditions on the ground, away from the consumer.

             The study by the Fair Trade movement, including analysis and cross-checking of 469 documents, mainly focuses on Côte d'Ivoire and Peru, respectively 1st and 9th world producer of cocoa. This highlights the staggering disparities in the distribution of wealth within the cocoa production chain. Indeed, we learn that only 7% of the final value of a chocolate bar returns to the producer when it comes from the Ivory Coast, and 13% when it comes from Peru, while 2/3 return value directly to brands and retailers. On farms, this results in a systematic misery of the workers.

               As often in the field of food industry, the crux of the problem would lie in the excessive number of intermediaries involved in the manufacture of the product. Each seeking in fact to do more profits than its competitor, the labor is valued and commodities cheapest, leaving aside all social and environmental responsibility. The sector would thus entered a vicious circle of low pay producers and instability of their income prevents them from investing in more sustainable infrastructure. Thus, resources are scarce and aging cocoa trees, forcing some producers to use more chemical inputs to maintain their yields, or expand their crops by encroaching on forest land. At present, over 80% of the Ivorian forest that has disappeared since the 1960s, says the study, are 13 billion hectares, largely because of the cocoa production.

               Another aspect little media coverage, the presence of children at work. The farms are usually family, as was the case in the West two centuries ago, there are children of all ages who work in difficult conditions, handling of chemical inputs or machetes, and are often deprived of education for lack of time and resources. So have to have over 2 million children involved in the cocoa sector worldwide.

               The conventional cocoa sector in the organization it is today, is dedicated to the social and environmental failure. Indeed, the negative impacts cited here translate into hidden costs for the country, "that is to say, not covered by the cost structures that are behind and left the responsibility of local populations. "Said the Movement Equitable. "These societal costs are estimated at 2.85 billion euros for the Ivory Coast and € 62 million for Peru, compared to € 3.7 billion and € 166 million of revenues generated by exports of cocoa in both countries. In other words, per euro of value created, cocoa and chocolate industry generates 77 cents of societal costs in Ivory Coast and 37 cents of costs in Peru. "