Not so sweet

Cocoa was brought to West Africa by European chocolate companies in search of cheap labor, leaving a colonial legacy in the chocolate industry. This colonial legacy is still evident in the chocolate industry, which is now worth a fortune. However, most of the profits end up in the hands of large foreign multinational confectionery companies that control the chocolate trade. Over 60% of globally produced cocoa originates from West Africa, with Ghana recognized as one of the world’s leading producers, second only to the Ivory Coast. The contribution of the cocoa industry to the Ghanaian economy is significant, employing around 850,000 farming families and generating approximately 800,000 tons of cocoa every year. However, the pandemic has reduced cocoa prices, further reducing the profit margins of farmers. Currently, cocoa farmers in Ghana earn about $2,000 for the entire harvesting season (6 months), which is less than $6 a day for the entire year. On a 100-gram chocolate bar, which has an average cost of $3.5, the Ghanaian farmer receives only $0.15. As a result, farming families often resort to using child labor as a means of livelihood for the entire family. Additionally, children who work on cocoa plantations are exposed to agricultural chemicals and the risks associated with using machetes. To cope with prolific insect populations, tropical regions like Ghana use large quantities of hazardous chemicals such as glyphosate, which can have harmful effects on human health and the environment. Furthermore, cocoa production poses serious environmental problems, with much of the crops originating from illegally cultivated plots, theoretically protected forest areas that have instead been deliberately deforested. Despite the chocolate industry’s turnover constantly increasing, reaching $100 billion globally in 2022, cocoa remains associated with poverty at the base of the production chain, while the finished product is considered a luxury. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Christina, 52 years old, moving cocoa pods, which are dried in the sun for a week.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Jaw, 24 years old, picking pods on cocoa trees. For pods high on the tree, a hook type of pruning tool can be used, with a handle at the end of a long pole. By pushing or pulling depending on the position of the fruit, the upper and lower blades of the tool allow you to cleanly cut the petiole, without damaging the branch that supports it.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Bosnian, 12 years old, strikes the pod with a machete , opening it with the tip of the blade to extract the cocoa beans. With every machete strike there is a potential risk of cutting oneself.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Checking the weight of each bag of cocoa, before being transported to the port of Accra.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Samd, 12 years old, carrying sacks of cocoa. About 30% of children working on cocoa plantations in Ghana do not attend school. Depriving children of an education greatly reduces the hopes of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Cocoa farmer unloading beans onto the ground for natural fermentation, which lasts for a week.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Afin, 25 years old, during the extraction of cocoa pods. Ghana is the world’s second largest cocoa producing country.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Jaw, 32 years old, uses a machete to cut ripe cocoa pods.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Asebe, 44 years old, at work. The pods are harvested manually by making a clean cut through the stalk with a well sharpened blade attached to the top of a long pole. A good cocoa plant can produce up to 2.000 pods a year.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Mary, 22 years old, cocoa farmer, on her way to work.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Only water supply in the village. Estimations of the Ghanaian government determine that one out of every five children in Ghana is involved in child labour.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Women do about 70% of the work on cocoa farms and receive only about 20% of the income, according to the African Development Bank.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. In Ghana, cocoa production is critical for macroeconomic balances and is tied to the livelihoods of many people. Ghana’s cocoa sector contributes about 1.8% to GDP and provides a source of livelihoods to nearly four million households (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018).
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Quality control of cocoa beans. The cocoa farmers harvest around 350kg (six bags of 64kg) of cocoa per month for six months. In total 2.300kg equal to a value of about 2.050 dollars.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Each sack of cocoa must weigh 64 kg equal to a value of approximately 55 dollars. Ghanaian cocoa farmers operate on small-scale, family-run farms of about 2–4 ha, with an average yield of 250 kg/ha.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. The global cocoa market is worth a fortune, but much of the profits end up in the hands of the industrial giants who control the chocolate trade.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. In Ghana, the world’s second largest producer after Ivory Coast, cocoa is the main source of income to 850.000 cocoa farm families in the country. But the challenges they face are many, and the income they get from cocoa harvest is not high enough for a vast majority of them to meet their families’ basic needs such as: food, clothing, decent shelter, healthcare, and education.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. After harvesting the cocoa, breaking the pod with the machete is the first process. The discarded shells are left to return the nutrients to the soil.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Samuel, 14 years old, at work. To block the fermentation process, the pods are dried in the sun for a week, spread out on long wooden shelves and turned periodically.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. The cocoa beans are dried in the sun for one week, to reduce the moisture content.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Young cocoa farmer returning from work. An estimated 2 million cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire suffer from poverty.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Decades of deforestation and cocoa monocropping to answer a fast-growing global demand, without compensation of soil nutrition, have affected soil health. The over-use of herbicides and the effects of climate change have further aggravated soil fertility.
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Cocoa farmers looking for banana leaves to cover the cocoa beans, during the fermentation period.
  • Today, 70% of global cocoa production is sourced from West Africa and, within this region, the vast majority of cultivated cocoa fields are located in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Here, the growth in cocoa production has led to progressive deforestation.
  • Ghana and Ivory Coast, together produce 60% of the world’s cocoa each year. 1.48 million children are engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads. That number of children is significant, representing 43 percent of all children living in agricultural households in cocoa growing areas.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Elderly woman carrying tools for harvesting cocoa pods.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Of all children in Ghana aged 5 to17 years, about 21 per cent are involved in child labour and 14 per cent are engaged in hazardous forms of labour. This is twice as common in rural areas. (Source UNICEF).
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Mother with daughter on her way to the synagogue. Islam is the second most widely professed religion in the country behind Christianity. Its presence in Ghana dates back to the 10th century. According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s Population census (2021), the percentage of Muslims in Ghana is about 19.9%.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Ghanaian family about to go to Mass.
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Two girls returning home after a day at school. Nearly 623,500 children of primary school age are still not enrolled in primary school and one out of four children in the kindergarten age range (from four to five years of age) are not in pre-school. (Source UNICEF).
  • Siribuoso Community, Kumasi District, Ghana. Transportation of water for domestic use. Child labour is a significant problem in Ghana, affecting almost two million children. (Source UNICEF).
  • Law Mensah Krom village, Kumasi district, Ghana. Christina, 52 years old, at work. Cocoa beans being dried out, before being sold to local traders.
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