The murky truth about where your chocolate comes from
Despite a significant uptick in corporate sustainability efforts in the cocoa sector, it is nearly impossible for most chocolate consumers to know the amount of tropical deforestation associated with their sweet luxury.
The cocoa bean is the fundamental and irreplaceable ingredient in chocolate. Cocoa beans come from trees that require specific climates and pollination systems. These conditions are found in and around tropical forest ecosystems.
As global demand for chocolate increases due to increasing awareness of the potential health benefits of dark chocolate and rising disposable incomes in emerging economies, cocoa farms are replacing the last remaining biodiversity hotspots.
Chocolate fix: How the cocoa industry could end deforestation in West Africa
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MétéoMédia - Your favourite treat has complex, mysterious supply chain
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Carodenuto along with Janina Grabs, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich’s Environmental Policy Lab wants to know how, and if, these businesses can drive widespread change to sustainable farming. Each year, the world consumes about four million tonnes of cocoa, most of it grown by small farmers in West Africa. The beans then pass between middlemen along increasingly concentrated supply chains. By the time they reach supermarket shelves, over 60 per cent of the beans will have been controlled by three international commodity companies, she said. That creates an “hourglass” structure, she said. There are lots of farmers at one end and plenty of chocolate consumers at the other, but they’re only linked by a few large companies. It’s a structure replicated across most commodity supply chains, from coffee to corn.
Carodenuto along with Janina Grabs, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich’s Environmental Policy Lab wants to know how, and if, these businesses can drive widespread change to sustainable farming. Each year, the world consumes about four million tonnes of cocoa, most of it grown by small farmers in West Africa. The beans then pass between middlemen along increasingly concentrated supply chains. By the time they reach supermarket shelves, over 60 per cent of the beans will have been controlled by three international commodity companies, she said. That creates an “hourglass” structure, she said. There are lots of farmers at one end and plenty of chocolate consumers at the other, but they’re only linked by a few large companies. It’s a structure replicated across most commodity supply chains, from coffee to corn.