Most of the world’s cocoa supplies are carried out from small family farms, which are located in different countries of West Africa. The process of growing cocoa is quite time-consuming, and currently, consumers and human rights activists are concerned that children are used in this work. The cost of buying cocoa beans is meager and constantly changing. In order to support farmers, the so-called fair trade was introduced.
Fairtrade was introduced to support the work of local farmers, whose incomes depend not only on themselves but also on various factors such as drought, crop diseases, and others. Farmers use child and slave labor to cut costs and earn more money for a living. Fairtrade helps set fair prices for products produced by farmers for export to other countries. In addition, farmers’ workers are paid an adequate salary, and they are also provided with a good and safe workplace. Products with the “fair trade” mark are sold much more expensive than those that do not have this mark. Still, this is not a significant help to farmers since their income from inflated prices is still very low, and the primary profit goes to intermediaries.
The price is undoubtedly too high, but it is not because it will allow farmers to earn more money, but because there is a particular segment of consumers willing to pay such money for products. There is a company called Divine, which is really fair to farmers producing cocoa for their chocolate. Farmers receive not only a good profit from the sale of chocolate but also dividends from the company’s profits. Thus, Divine supports its suppliers from the Kuapa Kokoo Cocoa Production cooperative.