Chocolate and Child Labor

A response to Mr. Siltons fleeting comment on the chocolate industry...

Ghana and Ivory Coast produce 60% of the world’s cocoa, providing jobs for millions of people. The cocoa produced in these nations supplies some of the world’s biggest brands including Nestlé and Cadbury. The source of this cocoa, however, fuels controversy. Children in these impoverished countries serve as indispensable helpers in families which have limited incomes but there have also been instances of slavery involving the sale of children into unpaid labor. There have been initiatives in Europe and the United States to do something about this use of child labor in the cocoa trade. The Fairtrade organization serves as a safeguard against child labor as defined by the International Labour Organization:

 

It refers to work that:

§ is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children;

§ interferes with their schooling by:

§ depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;

§ obliging them to leave school prematurely; or

§ requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

 

Fairtade works with cooperatives in the countries which supply the cocoa, auditing the various farming communities to make sure that the cocoa used by chocolate companies is not tainted by child labor. The US State Department estimates that about 100,000 Ivorian children work in the cocoa industry and some of these children, instead of attending school, work in farms which supply industry giants like Nestlé through Fairtrade. The fact remains that by the time the cocoa has left its country of origin, it is virtually impossible to trace the cocoa.

            Despite efforts to help the children in these countries, there is a question as to whether initiatives such as Fairtrade, if they really do work, are a help or a hindrance. For there to be a problem, there needs to be a solution. The opportunity cost of giving up a child to education in a family that can barely get by would translate to the inability to sustain that family. The International Cocoa Initiative, headed by Peter McAllister has worked with 243 communities in West Africa and has helped 16,000 children attend school, but what does this achieve?

            This approach seems to be more constructive than the “sanctioning” approach of Fairtrade which could devastate the economies of the communities involved which depend entirely on cocoa. Nevertheless, even if these children are able to receive an education, given the infrastructure in their developing countries, there may be problems relating to structural unemployment, making education a waste of time. It is clear that the selling of children into slavery is unacceptable, but how realistic is it to force children in third-world countries to attend school when their families just can’t afford it?