Ivorians Address Cocoa-Slavery Link

May 4, 2001 -- A piece of chocolate might be a little slice of heaven for those of us living in the developed world — but some people contend the sweet comes from a world of misery.

Beatings, slavery and terror are some of the things that contribute to the production of chocolate, activists say.

More than 90 percent of cocoa from Ivory Coast — the world's biggest producer of cocoa — is procured with the help of child labor, according to Slavery, a documentary broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 last year.

Today, a senior delegation from the West African nation arrived in London to address the allegations. The Ivorians say the use of child labor is linked to the low price of cocoa, and their prime minister said cocoa would have to rise almost 10 times in price for the slavery problem to disappear.

The Low-Price Connection

Cocoa prices are at a 10-year low, caused by deregulation of the market and overproduction. And that, some say, has led to slavery.

Traditionally, farmers in Ivory Coast have used young men and boys from Mali as laborers, contracting them for the farming season and paying them after the crop is sold.

But other farmers, unable to turn a profit in recent years, have refused to pay their laborers, and instead kept them working without pay through beatings, intimidation and threats of magical spells, say activists like the United Kingdon's Fairtrade Foundation.

Other young men have been lured to the plantations with false promises of well-paid work, only to wind up being bought and sold in open markets, according to Slavery.

Ivory Coast's prime minister, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, has blamed multinationals for the problem of child trafficking in Africa. He says they have encouraged more and more developing countries to grow cocoa, forcing down the price.

Inaccurate Reports?

But chocolate trade groups, like the London-based Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionary Alliance, as well as the Ivorian government, say that reports of slavery in the cocoa trade are exaggerated and not representative of conditions on most plantations.

The Ivorians also say they have signed an accord with Mali to tackle the issue.

Nevertheless, Ivorian Agriculture Minister Alphonse Douati told Reuters today that low prices could not be used as an excuse for the mistreatment of children in plantations.

"In my opinion, if the price was better, all producers would be encouraged to use legal work methods. Those who do use children are often immigrants who were themselves laborers in plantations," he said.

From the Flesh of Babes

The issue of child slavery in Africa was thrust into the spotlight last month when reports emerged of a ship traveling along the West African coast carrying up to 250 children bound for slavery.

Although the ship was eventually found to be carrying only about a dozen suspected child slaves, the incident revived fears of a thriving modern slave trade.

Those fears first came to light last September with the broadcast of Slavery, which told the story of 18 young men and boys who had been enslaved on one cocoa plantation in Ivory Coast.

The filmmakers said they got their story when one of the boys managed to escape and notified a countryman.

When the filmmakers asked the former slave, known as Victor, if he had ever tasted chocolate, he said "no."

They then asked him what he would say to the millions of Britons who ate chocolate daily.

He answered: "If I had to say something to them it would not be nice words. They buy something I suffer to make. They are eating my flesh."