Guilt Free Chocolate – Tony’s Chocolonely show us how other chocolate manufacturers can do more to improve their supply chain.
What does chocolate and fashion have in common? That was the big question when we invited Tony’s Chocolonely to our fashion and farming panel this year. Besides being sweet treats, both food and fashion have lured us into what appears to be guilt free spending. Pure cocoa and Fairtrade to chocolate is as good as 100% cotton and GOTS certified to textiles, right? But is this enough?
Chocolate and fashion both rely on very complex supply chains that often begin with people farming land that is millions of miles away (both figuratively and literally) from our western society. So let’s ask again: is this enough? Fashion and chocolate rely heavily on farmers, and within the past decade companies have made promises to source from ethical suppliers – this equates to fair wages, zero tolerance to cruelty, slavery and child labour, and using processes that are kind to the environment.
Labels such as Fairtrade and GOTS exist to amplify the voices of the workers that are exploited for their labour. Over time they have brought awareness to how our favourite items are made by becoming a trusted stamp for consumers to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ products, and to make better buying choices. As we cry out for brands to produce their products fairly (especially large organisations that can invest their large profits back into the beginning of their supply chain) we question how effective these ‘stamps’ of approval are and ask what is really going on behind the scenes?
“Parallels between food and fashion – the fashion industry needs to embody the changes that the food industry has made in terms of legislation and sustainability” – Tina Wetshi, Colèchi Co-Founder
In March 2022, Colèchi held the Clean Fashion Summit at Somerset House, hosting a fashion and farming panel to discuss the links between agriculture and fashion and why we need to speak about it. As fans of Tony’s, and advocates of their message to make chocolate slave free, we were excited to have them as a sponsor. Their ability to hold down their ethical messaging whilst being available across some of the biggest supermarkets has made it one of the most sustainable treats on the market. However, we questioned if a brand that has grown so rapidly could have an ethical supply chain – especially if they are a Dutch brand, whilst their farmers are primarily in West Africa. There is a false perception that the best Chocolate comes from Belgium, without acknowledging that the story of cocoa beans begins in West Africa. Just as a silk garments ‘Made in Italy’ dismiss the workers in East Asia that sourced, spun and wove the fibre.
After finalising our sponsorship with Tony’s, it came to light that Tony’s Chocolonely found child labour in their supply chain – which we read in an article in The Times. We were then faced with a tough decision: whether to continue to work with them at our event because of a negative article produced online. We aren’t huge fans of cancel culture but instead we wanted to tackle the issues raised – after all, injustice continues if everyone remains silent. Instead of solely focusing on the issues, we made room for a wider conversation. Whilst most would expect a sweet message from Tony’s, it was just as important to taste some bitter reality. It’s rare to find a company that builds a brand around a mission: ‘we’re an impact company that makes chocolate, and not the other way around’.
It helped that Tony’s didn’t shy away from the problems raised at the Clean Fashion Summit as Vlora Salihi, Head of Commercial at Tony’s Chocolonely, wanted to address the Times article and uncover why the article was misleading. She commented: ‘we look for child labour because only by finding those issues can we help fix and limit these issues. And, let me be honest, every chocolate brand out there has child labour in their supply chain. In West Africa as I’ve mentioned there’s around 1.56 million children, to put this into perspective that’s 1 in every 2 children in a cocoa growing community… in our cooperatives, that we work with, the number drops down to 3.9 %. We still find child labour, but we our doing something about it’.
This highlighted why, as consumers, we must be present in what we read and we should research who we consume goods from. Tony’s also produces a transparent annual report that is dedicated to showing not only the company’s progress but also where they need to improve so, in short: yes, some child labour was still found in their supply chain, but this is because they were honest enough to disclose the facts and figures and do something about it. If we cancel Tony’s, do we just move on to another chocolate brand that probably has a worse supply chain?
Having a representative from Tony’s at the event offered an insight into how the company faces issues in their supply chain and how these issues have similarities to fashion legislation. The food industry has been years ahead of the planet first campaign; pioneering veganism (for obvious reasons), making food labels mandatory, and most recently the traffic light system we now see across our produce (red for bad, and green for good). We thought we could learn a thing or two about what the fashion industry could pick up as fashion’s sustainability movement is in its infancy. Using the food industry as inspiration, we could could help amend some of the fashion industry’s problems with being ethical and sustainable. Tony’s Chocolonely’s ideology and approach to business offered a perspective rarely heard, about the ties between the food and fashion industry.
“How can consumers have faith that when you buy a product with a sustainability stamp, it does what it says?”
Whilst chocolate lovers began cancelling Tony’s following The Times’ article, we realised that the brand had done something that many brands wouldn’t. They openly spoke about the true conditions of the cocoa farming industry – and were open to being questioned and recorded in a room full of planet-conscious people. Whilst organisations such as Tony’s are open and transparent about their cases of child labour, organisations such as Cadbury’s have plastered their chocolates with ‘Cocoa Life’ (their transparency index that promises sustainable chocolate and the ability to trace their cocoa production to their supply chain and farmers). The Cocoa Life website is filled with videos of positive impact, however recently Channel 4 released Cadbury Exposed: Dispatches. The documentary provided an insight into the ‘ethical’ farmers that are listed on the Cocoa Life website, as reporter Antony Barnett goes behind the scenes with hidden cameras, only to discover that these farmers are not being paid enough to afford adult labour, which often results in having their own children work on the farm.
Let’s look closer at Cadbury’s ‘Cocoa Life’: does it actually work on improving those cocoa growing communities? Recently, Channel 4’s Dispatches looked into this after finding evidence of child labour on the Mondalez ‘Cocoa Life’ farms. Bloomberg wrote that: ‘in the 1970s cocoa accounted for 50% of a chocolate bar, now it’s dropped down to 6%… squeezing profit from cocoa farmers‘. This is shocking considering one of the farmers who partnered up with Cadbury’s ‘Cocoa Life’ claimed to earn the equivalent of £500 a year. However, when asked for a comment (as expected) Dirk Van de Put, the Chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International who is one of Cadbury’s manufacturers and earns £18m annually, refused to give a comment to presenter Antony Barnett.
Evidently, there aren’t many chocolatiers that put the work into having a fair supply chain. However, Tony’s Chocolonely is a company that is paving the way in showing their consumers exactly where their cocoa is coming from and working with farmers to openly advertise that: ‘60% of cocoa is produced in Ivory Coast, Ghana’. Their mission is clear: to end modern day slavery and work on preventing child labour in their supply chain. They try to achieve this by helping the lives of cocoa farmers and their families through fair wages, education and even transport for children to school from local villages. Poverty shouldn’t be accepted in any industry and chocolate isn’t guilt-free if we avoid amending this problem.
If you wouldn’t buy garments from brands or designers that are involved with modern day slavery, why would you consume that type of chocolate? After having an in-depth talk with Vlora, from Tony’s, it showed us (as consumers) why we have to look out for Fairtrade badges and question why larger brands aren’t doing more to fix their supply chains and lean away from just being profitable.
‘Cocoa works on the international market through supply and demand. With supply mainly from West Africa and demand from the EU and North America’ – Bloomberg, 2022
Let’s break down Fairtrade: what does it mean for companies that partner with them and for workers further down the supply chain? According to the Fairtrade website: ‘cocoa has grown to be one of the most prominent Fairtrade products since it was first certified in 1994’. So far Fairtrade is the only certification that guarantees farmers a wage. Tony’s Chocolonely works alongside Fairtrade to offer their farmers a fair wage premium and to protect their wages. However, when the markets drop they also go a step further by working, not only with the farmers but, with the families and the community to help provide what they need.
Moreover, Tony’s don’t just work with Fairtrade, but they are heavily focused on minimising the number of workers involved in modern day slavery and child labour: ‘30,000 people are victims of modern slavery. Tony’s mission is to make all chocolate 100% slave-free’. Sadly, many farmers and children work in illegal conditions, but the cocoa industry is one of the worst, arming children with machetes and exposing them to toxic pesticides used to grow the crop. That is exactly why Tony’s Chocolonely is trying to bring consumers attention to this and make a positive impact.
‘We don’t pay for ads, a lot of what we do is through consumers and word of mouth and our products – we broke this rule in the UK in November when cocoa prices dropped but it wasn’t to advertise Tony’s but our mission‘.
It’s important that the problems in all the industries that effect us are discussed: from fashion to food, a change can’t be made if people continue to blindly consume just because it’s a larger or well-known brand. The chocolate industry is supposedly worth over $100 billion, so surely these profits should be shared? Tony’s has displayed that, with its mission at the centre and tastier chocolate being secondary, everyone can afford to make the changes to their supply chain, pay fair wages and still make a profit. As consumers we have to ask questions to push for more policies and ensure the right things are being done. Don’t just unwrap your chocolate, but unwrap the truth behind it too.
For more information on what happens in the Chocolate industry there are a series of programs to watch:
- ‘Bitter Chocolate’ episode of the ‘Rotten’ series on @netflixuk
- Cadbury Exposed – Dispatches on Channel 4/4OD
Bloomberg – Africa’s Plan to Bring Chocolate Profits Home
