The Bitter Truth - Panorama

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

The Panorama programme Chocolate: the Bitter Truth, (Wednesday, 24 March) reported on the continued problem of child labour in West African cocoa farms.
Here we bring you the response from the Fair Trade Organisation.

We welcome any spotlight on child labour and the Fair Trade movement works tirelessly to combat unfair trade which forces children to sacrifice their childhood and education.

Fair Trade prohibits child labour, and our standards and certification processes mean that we will always take action to protect children from, and find solutions to, the worst forms of child labour. Through our partnership with Fairtrade Labelling Organizations, we already had our own investigation underway in Ghana prior to the program’s findings and have now triggered an investigation in Cote d’Ivoire.

We should not forget that child labor is symptomatic of deep poverty in some of the most challenged countries in the world. Fair Trade guarantees a community development premium for producers over and above the world price of commodities like cocoa, supporting investment by producers in education, health, housing and other key social and environmental improvements. This focus on development makes Fair Trade well-placed to support farmers in adopting measures that will help eradicate child labour in the cocoa industry.

Response from Traidcraft, 25 March 2010.

The programme identified the use of child labour in West African cocoa supply chains. This included Fairtrade-certified producers from the Ivory Coast and Ghana, but it also showed how, when identified by Fairtrade auditors, the issue was dealt with swiftly and compassionately.

Child labour is a serious and urgent issue in West Africa (it is estimated that up to 800,000 children are trafficked each year in the region) and it is inconceivable that Fairtrade cocoa producers could escape being affected by these issues.

Enforced child labour is an infringement of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child.

The Fairtrade system explicitly prohibits child labour and when it is found by Fairtrade auditors, actions are taken to tackle the situation. Fairtrade is also part of the longer term solution to child labour.

The guaranteed minimum price, extra premium payments for investment in communities, and the democratic organisation of producers, all help to alleviate poverty and address the kind of issues which result in children being forced to work.

That is why so many of our Fairtrade producers proudly tell us how, because of their improved livelihoods, they are now able to send their children to school.

So it was encouraging to see in the programme how Fairtrade producer group Kuapa Kokoo - whom many of you will recognise as being the supplier of cocoa to Divine chocolate - handled the discovery of child labour by a Fairtrade auditor in an effective and appropriate manner.

Running a large co-operative of 45,000 cocoa farmers to such high standards is a credit to the work of the farmers and to Divine chocolate. But we must also recognise that there is much more work for Fairtrade to do to help address the serious issue of child labour across the whole of that region.

The practical nature of Fairtrade means that at the very least we can support Fairtrade cocoa producers by encouraging more sales of their products.

Panorama also raised some challenges like ‘Do we as consumers pay enough for our chocolate?’ As Fairtrade consumers these are familiar concerns to us and it’s encouraging to see these questions being posed. This type of debate can help to engender greater support for Fairtrade and the work we are all doing to fight poverty.

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