Cocoa production in Ghana: on the backs of children

Many chocolate Santa Clauses have a bitter aftertaste: 1.6 million minors still work in the cocoa industry in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. According to studies, child labor should no longer be a problem.

Sorting cocoa beans instead of going to school. That’s how it is for many children in Ghana – like in Juaboso, a community 420 kilometers from the capital Accra.

Kofi works there – he cuts cocoa pods. He does not want to give his real name. The ten-year-old wants to go to school, he says. But he couldn’t, he had to work on cocoa plantations.

Hard physical work

“It’s a very difficult job, but I do it to support my mother,” says Kofi. “Sometimes I cut myself and I get all kinds of other injuries. I don’t think I’ll ever achieve anything.” The cocoa work took his life.

In the immediate vicinity, a 12-year-old carries a heavy sack filled with cocoa beans. He says he’s never been to school. The work is not good for him. “I’m so exhausted that I can’t even sleep at night,” says the boy. “I don’t think I have a good future with this job.”

Child labor has increased

According to studies in recent years, around 1.6 million children between the ages of five and 17 work in cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast – 43 percent of them are at particular risk. For example, they work at night, with sharp tools, or they are exposed to pesticides.

The balance of the studies is bitter: The overall proportion of child labor has therefore even increased in the last ten years – parallel to the increased cocoa production.

Fiifi Boafo is from the Ghana Cocoa Board, a government organization that tries to protect cocoa farmers from prices that are too low. Because they are part of the problem. Nonetheless, he is in favor of complete criminal prosecution. His organization works closely with the security authorities.

“As a cocoa farmer, you shouldn’t use children on your plantations, because if you do that, you’re breaking the law,” says Boafo. Ghana has been making this clear in numerous awareness campaigns for years. “Cocoa farmers who let children work know that they are criminals act,” says the expert.

Laws against child exploitation

There are laws to protect children in Ghana from exploitation in the cocoa sector, but there is a lack of monitoring and enforcement. Critics say the persecution only serves to hide the children. This makes the work even more dangerous for them.

The cocoa farmers, on the other hand, complain that the problem is the low prices. According to the Fairtrade Foundation, Ghana and Ivory Coast account for 60 percent of global cocoa production. But their farmers earn less than 6 percent of the global chocolate industry’s total revenue – just a tenth.

Cocoa farmers complain that there is not enough support

Cocoa farmer Joseph Addo says many farmers simply don’t have the money to hire adult harvest hands. That’s an old problem. “We don’t want to let our children work at all. We’d rather they go to school and then go into farming,” says Addo.

But cocoa farmers received no support for the use of technology. Therefore, many have had to resort to the help of their families, including children. “It’s unfortunate,” adds the farmer.

Premium of $400 per ton

Human rights organizations have been denouncing for years that large chocolate manufacturers such as Nestlé or Mars could have abolished child labor in their supply chains long ago.

Production countries like Ghana also point the finger at the chocolate industry. For years, they have been trying to use tricks to circumvent a premium of around USD 400 per tonne that was actually introduced for cocoa farmers. Representatives of the chocolate industry, on the other hand, claim that significant progress has already been made.

West African countries issue ultimatum

The companies say they helped build schools, for example. Studies also show that where manufacturers are committed to this, child labor is significantly reduced. This is exactly where the main criticism lies: The industry, with its billions in profits, could have done far more to improve the situation of producers – so that child labor should no longer be a problem today.

The West African cocoa giants Ghana and Ivory Coast have now given the major producers from Europe and North America an ultimatum. They threaten to punish corporations by banning them from visiting plantations to assess crops – a key indicator for forecasting cocoa prices.

But whether the West African cocoa countries would actually carry out their threats is uncertain. After all, Europe is their largest sales market. So far, the dispute has continued to be carried out literally on the backs of the children.