The Plight of Chocolate Growers

Ghirardlli Square in Background

Ghirardlli Square is a wonderful place to buy chocolate in San Francisco. And they give free samples! I got three. But their marketing masks the plight of cocoa growers.

Here's what you should know:

West African countries are critically dependent on cocoa. Ninety percent of the world's cocoa is grown by families on small farms of 12 acres or less. In Ghana, cocoa revenues account for more than 33 percent of the country's total export earnings.

Cocoa is one of the world's most traded and speculated commodities, but the vast majority of the money that cocoa earns goes to middlemen, not to growers. Oftentimes, farmers may be forced to sell their harvest for less than the cost of production, or for just slightly more, leaving little money to provide for their families. Low cocoa prices have meant severe poverty and even child slavery for many families in West Africa, tainting chocolate with the bitterness of social injustice.

Fair trade is the way out of this dilemma.

In Ghana, 47,000 cocoa farmers have united to form Kuapa Kokoo, a democratically operated cooperative that gives them stronger representation in the cocoas market. The farmers pool their crops to sell directly to international buyers without relying on middlemen. When the cooperative sells its crop to fair trade buyers, the farmers receive a fair price. Also, the cooperative received a fair trade premium that is invested in the faming communities --to build wells, fund schools, and provide mobile medical clinics and other benefits.

The information above is from the Lutheran World Relief brochure. You can order chocolate directly from the LWR site below. You don't have to be Lutheran, or a member of a Lutheran congregation. In fact, please do order. Why not include a little chocolate bar in your Christmas packages this year?

Lutheran World Relief Chocolate Webstore