Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of chocolate. Côte d’Ivoire’s main income comes from chocolate, which accounts for 31% of its revenue. Côte d’Ivoire’s role in the global chocolate industry is significant because it produces and trades them to resellers and big corporations. But in my opinion, chocolate is not good for Côte d’Ivoire. Chocolate is not a good source of revenue due to the social conditions of Côte d’Ivoire. Document E states, “Some children end up on the cocoa farms because they need work and traffickers tell them the job pays well. Other children are “sold” to traffickers or farm owners by their own relatives.” This illustrates that children are working on farms due to child labor and are being sold off to human …show more content…
This shows the evident cruelty and harsh working environments in the chocolate industry. Another example comes from Document F stating that, “Cocoa growers are typically illiterate subsistence farmers who grow cacao alongside staple food crops to provide a main cash income to pay for school fees, medical bills, and other household necessities. The communities have poor education and healthcare services and lack electricity and decent sanitation and water is only available from communal wells.” This evidence clearly shows that even if they produce all this chocolate and it's their main source of income, they receive little to no pay. They have horrible health care insurance and their water source is non-existent except from communal wells. This is one of the many key reasons chocolate is not good for Côte d’Ivoire. Another reason why chocolate is not beneficial to Côte d'Ivoire is because of its environmental conditions. For example, in Doc D it states, “All this deforestation, combined with hunting that accompanies it, has a devastating impact on Ivory Coast’s primates. Five of the surveyed protected areas were found to have lost half of their primate species.” This portrays that all their agricultural
Unfortunately, not everyone involved in the production of this popular sweet benefits. Today, over 70 percent of the world’s chocolate is exported from Africa (“Who consumes the most chocolate,” 2012, para 10). While chocolate industry flourishes under international demand, the situation in Côte d’Ivoire in particular illustrates dependency theory and highlights the need for the promotion of Fair Trade. Chocolate has had a considerable impact on the country’s economic structure and labor practices.
The videos provided for this subject builds a great understanding on what happens behind the scenes and how the production cycle of chocolates turns deadly for few. The chocolate industry is being accused having legit involvement in human trafficking. The dark side of chocolate is all about big industries getting their coco from South America and Africa industries. However, it is an indirect involvement of Hersheys and all other gigantic brands in trafficking (Child Slavery and the Chocolate Factory, 2007).
During the time frame of 1450-1750, the Columbian Exchange was at its height of power and influence. Many products were introduced from foreign lands, like animals such as cattle, chickens, and horse, and agriculture such as potatoes, bananas, and avocados. Diseases also became widespread and persisted to distant lands where it wreaked devastation upon the non-immunized people. One such influential product during this time period was the cacao, or more commonly known as chocolate. First discovered and used in the Americas, cacao beans quickly traveled to and became a popular treat in European lands. It was valuable in the New World and even used as a currency by the Aztecs. Only the rich and privileged were allowed to purchase the valuable item in the beginning. Cacao was even used in religious ceremonies by the native people. When it moved to Europe and other lands, it also created a lot of stir. The cacao plant had quite a large impact upon the Columbian Exchange.
Chocolate: A bittersweet saga of dark and light. New York: North Point P, 2005. McNeill, J. R. "The Columbian Exchange. " The Columbian Exchange.
Chocolate companies changed from minimal production to massive manufacturing. Thus, targeting different market segments that weren’t possible to reach due to the high cost of the good. The market was able to shift because of the industrialization process that includes several innovations, such as van Houten’s process, this allowed a broad production and distribution of chocolate that spread around the globe.
Gabon has a PCI (per capita income) that is two to four times greater than that of most sub-Saharan African nations. The average income in Gabon is about $6,400 compared to the $1,200 of some other countries. The higher PCI has helped in the decline of extreme poverty but because of a high income inequality many families still remain poor. High income inequality makes it hard for families to move up in society, they remain where they are at. In 1992 there fiscal deficit widened to 2.4% of there GDP and they did not settle the arrears on the bilateral debt which lead to the cancellation of all the official and private creditors. Fluctuating prices in the oil, timber, and uranium, plus poor fiscal management has also hurt the economy.
Chocolate is everywhere in daily American life; it’s in our desserts, entire aisles are devoted to it in grocery stores, stores dedicated to its selling, even our holidays are highly associated with chocolate. Due to the abundance of chocolate products; on average, Americans will eat a chocolate product on a weekly basis (Qureshi). A majority of cocoa beans, the key ingredient of chocolate, comes from Western Africa, where child labor and often slavery runs rampant. The laborers and slaves, who cultivate the cocoa, work with dangerous weapons and chemicals in an inhospitable environment. The children, who are being forcibly worked, on the cocoa farms tend to be from the ages 12 to 16 to as young as 5 years old; these young ages are when
Chocolate is a sweet food preparation made of cacao seeds in various forms and flavors. It has large application in the food industry and can be consumed either as a final product or as a flavoring ingredient for a great variety of sweet foods. Its primary ingredient – cacao, is cultivated by many cultures in Mexico and Central America as well as in some countries in West Africa, such as Cote d’Ivoire.
Before looking into the chemical and psychological effects of chocolate, it is important to go back in time and see where chocolate originated. Even from the very beginning chocolate was viewed as a powerful food. The idea of chocolate first began in 1500 BC when the Pre-Olmecs and Mokaya peoples found that the beans that grew on the cacao trees could be used as food (Semenak, "Chocolate in History"). Moving forward to 600, the Mayan and Aztec civilizations used the chocolate beans in a more meaningful way. The Mayans created a drink from the beans and drank it during weddings and other important ceremonies. Only those of the highest class could indulge in what the Mayans referred to as the “God Food” ("Food: The History of Chocolate"). Similarly, the Aztecs created a drink out of the cacao beans, and according to Susan Semenak’s 2012 newspaper article, “Chocolate in History,” the Aztecs used it as a “love potion.” Pretty soon, the beans became so c...
Introduction The 58 million pounds of chocolate eaten on chocolate the drenched holiday of Valentines Day is likely made from cocoa beans from West Africa. The Ivory Coast, also known as Cote D'ivoire in Africa is the source of about 35 percent of the world’s cocoa production. These cocoa beans were likely harvested by unpaid child workers that are being held captive on plantations as slaves. Chocolate companies use these cocoa plantations as their cocoa source for their chocolate products. And since the companies want to maximize their profit, they push plantation owners to lower prices, causing plantations to cut price any way possible (Philpott).
Growth of the chocolate industry over the last decade has been driven in large part by an increasing awareness of the health benefits of certain types of chocolate. Chocolate consumers are considerably price insensitive. Except in rare circumstances consumers are willing to purchase what they consider an “affordable luxury.” Chocolate is one of the most popular and widely consumed products in the world, with North American countries devouring the lion's share, followed by Europe
chocolate is a food that people can just THINK about chocolate and feel satisfaction. chocolate is made from the cacao tree which is found in the amazon, and the forests of central and south america. these “chocolate beans” grow inside of cacao pods and then are made into a chocolate liquid. there is an ongoing debate on where chocolate was first made and who made it. some think that it was the aztecs, some think it was the mayans but others think that the olmecs were the people who made chocolate.
This means that each party can make choices. However in chocolate manufacturing one of the parties is often a large multi million dollar corporation and the other is a small farming company. Concern about the impact of this on small primary producers in developing countries lead to the Fairtrade agreement which Cadburys is a part of. By signing up to the Fairtrade agreement Cadburys agree to buy cocoa at a certain value. Last year Cadburys sold over 7 million chocolate products made with Fair Trade cocoa and this supported 65,000 jobs in
Cocoa production is predicted of getting shortage of supply in 2020 (Nelson, 2017). The famous chocolate drink that Malaysian drink daily, Milo contains cocoa. Other than Milo, Koko Krunch, Nestle Crunch Wafer, KitKat are also mainly made from cocoa. Nestle as a company which largely depends on cocoa bean for its products, will become one of the victim of this cocoa supply risk. The biggest cocoa producer in the world, Ivory Coast, is facing the problem of diseases infected in cocoa plant, frequent rain, and buyers forcing producers to sell cocoa at very low price (The Guardian, 2014). In Malaysia and Indonesia, cocoa plantations are threatened by a tiny moth named as cocoa pod borer which eat the seed (Nelson, 2017).. These pests has cost cocoa
Two common products that are Fair Trade Certified are Cocoa and Coffee, each of which contains problems that producers face but gain benefits from Fair Trade. Fairtrade International states that cocoa is grown in tropical regions of more than 30 developing countries, such as West Africa and Latin America, providing an estimate of 14 million people with livelihood. Fair Trade Standards for cocoa includes no forced labor of any kind - including child labor and environmental standards restricts the use of chemicals and encourage sustainability. A problem cocoa producers face is the lack of access to markets and financing. Since cocoa is a seasonal crop, producers need loans to meet the needs for planting and cultivating their crop. With this in mind,...