Biting a crunchy piece of chocolate followed by an intensive flavor that is melting in your mouth is so tempting. Although some people can’t resist, chocolate also has its downside. However the first steps leading to creation of chocolate are very interesting.
Cocoa trees, which are essential in the birth of real chocolate, grow only in tropical areas. However, their original home is in South America. Aztecs used to add cocoa into ritual drinks in ancient times. The navigator Christopher Columbus brought cocoa tree fruits to Europe. The Spaniards later introduced the cultivation of this plant in the Philippines, and it was not until the end of the 19th century that cocoa reached West Africa. This area currently has the most crucial position in cocoa production in the world. Specifically, up to 40% of world cocoa production is grown in Côte d’Ivoire, followed by neighboring Ghana with a 20% share of production. In total, over 4 million tons of cocoa are produced worldwide each year.
Endangered Cultivation
Cocoa trees are massive trees that in their natural forest habitat grow up to 15 meters. However, they are pruned on growing plantations and reach a height of no more than 8 meters. To prosper and produce fruit, they require sufficient rainfall, the humidity of at least 65-70%, and a temperature of at least 21 °C. With excellent care and optimal conditions they can actively produce fruits for up to 40 years.
Interestingly, the cocoa tree’s flowers and subsequent fruits grow directly on the trunk or thick branches. The fruit is harvested from the trees daily, mostly as part of two main harvests. In Africa, the first main harvest runs from October to February and the second one from May to July. The cocoa tree’s ripe fruit is yellow or reddish-brown, weighs over 0.5 kg, and is up to 30 cm big. You can find 30 to 40 two-centimeter cocoa beans hidden in the sweet white flesh inside the fruit. Up to 2 kg of cacao beans grow on one tree per year.
Although cocoa trees seem to produce plenty of fruits, it isn’t always so. An unpredictable climate change, particularly an increase in average temperatures and a decrease in precipitation, may bring uncertainty about cocoa cultivation in West Africa. It is therefore likely that, for climatic reasons, in a few decades there will not be enough suitable places to grow cocoa trees in Africa or elsewhere in the world. The production of chocolate can thus be endangered.
On the Plantation
Cocoa production clearly requires exceptional effort. It is mainly strong men who work on cocoa plantations. They have rubber boots on their feet, which protect them against snakes and scorpions concentrated in cocoa trees’ fallen dry leaves.
Noufe Sie David, a cocoa grower, describes the work on the cocoa plantation as: “We have to clean the plot with planted cacao trees on an ongoing basis, at the same time pruning the shoots of plants that are not beneficial. We also regularly collect unsuitable cocoa pods so that every tree is strong and healthy. We fertilize the plantation as needed.”
Specifically, up to 40% of world cocoa production is grown in Côte d’Ivoire.
During harvest, cocoa growers go round the plantation and cut ripe fruit from the trees. “Once the fruit of the cocoa trees has ripened, it’s time to pick them up. We place the harvested fruits on a pile, and then we have to remove the beans from the pods. The obtained cocoa beans are then left to ferment for six days. We stir them several times during fermentation and then let them dry,” Edoukou François is describing the whole process.
Growers let the cocoa beans ferment cover them with banana leaves and then dry them for the next two weeks. During drying in the sun, the beans should be turned continuously and covered at night so that they do not get wet. Once they are dried, growers fill them in jute bags and prepare for export. The harvest is the peak of the season, but the last one was poor for growers from the African village of Krezoukoue because it was very dry.
Fairtrade System
Consumption of products that contain cocoa or use this raw material is increasing. The fact that consumption of fair trade cocoa is also gradually growing is good news for world growers. It increased by 132% year-on-year in 2017 in Slovakia only. It is a consequence of the new Fairtrade program for commodities, which simplifies the conditions for producing cocoa products. As a result, products with fair trade cocoa are increasingly being sold in larger retail chains.
It is also little known that, according to research, cocoa growers in Côte d’Ivoire earn an average of less than $ 1 a day. That is only half of what is considered the extreme poverty line, and about 2.5 times less than one would need for a dignified life. For a balanced diet, drinking water, housing, health care, the cost of educating children, and contingency savings. The cost of living is growing significantly for growers. The crop is also affected by the typical diseases of cacao trees and the already mentioned climate change. Growers often do not have the money either to plant new seedlings or investments to increase the production and quality of cocoa. The government controls the purchase prices of cocoa in a particular country. However, the reforms reintroduced fixed purchase prices in 2012. Until these purchase prices are increased, the living conditions of cocoa growers will not improve.
Cocoa growers in Côte d’Ivoire earn an average of less than $ 1 a day.
Large cocoa traders and perhaps all the world’s chocolate producers are dependent on supplies of cocoa beans from West Africa, as up to 70% of world production comes from this part of the world. Large cocoa traders buy cocoa beans from growers through intermediaries or cooperatives and import cocoa beans to processors by cargo ships. Large chocolate companies, such as Mars (USA), Nestlé (Switzerland), Mondelez (USA), Hershey’s (USA), Ferrero (Italy), and Lindt (Switzerland), produce up to 40% of all chocolate products in the world thanks to this cocoa.
Merchants and chocolate manufacturers throughout this supply chain, along with supermarkets, have the greatest strength. They will have the highest share of sales of chocolate products. Specifically, about 40% of the price will be awarded to chocolate manufacturers, and about 35% of the price will remain in the supermarket. There is still less and less remaining for the growers.
Back in the 1980s, growers received about 16% of chocolate’s price for their cocoa; now, they receive only 6%. It is the growers who do the major work, yet they have the weakest position in the supply chain.
The price of cheap cocoa is so shocking. The original rainforest is practically felled, and growers live in poverty. Besides, almost 20 years ago, large chocolate manufacturers pledged to stop using cocoa harvested by children in their production. However, most of the chocolate made today still begins with child labor.
Illegal Cultivation
It is estimated that up to 40% of cocoa grown in Côte d’Ivoire comes from protected areas. Thousands of people grow illegal cocoa on 2 million hectares of protected land. It is not easy to drive them out; they have lived here for several decades and are vitally dependent on selling their cocoa. Finding them an alternative source of income is one of the local government’s challenges, which won’t be very easy. Therefore, the government of these areas is trying to find partners among large chocolate producers. However, they are not very keen on making such a commitment. Thanks to traders, cocoa beans from large protected areas continue to reach large cocoa traders who sell it to the large chocolate producers. This means that chocolates and bars sold in Slovakia may also contain cocoa grown in protected areas.
Deforestation
Well-known main reasons for the declining rainforests on our planet include the cultivation of oil palm and soybeans and cattle breeding. In West Africa, however, it is mainly cocoa cultivation. At the same time, the growing production of cocoa in West Africa is not due to higher yields but to the expansion of growing areas. In Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa was grown on 1.6 million hectares in 1990 and 4.1 million hectares in 2017. In neighboring Ghana, the space for cocoa has increased from 0.7 to 1.7 million hectares. Côte d’Ivoire alone has lost 80% of its original rainforest since the 1960s. Mainly due to the establishment of new plantations, rainforests now cover only 4% of the territory. “When we establish a plantation, we cut down a forest. We will thoroughly clean the area, take cocoa seedlings, plant them, and wait. They produce fruit in 3 years at the earliest; after five years, we will start collecting them, -“adds Salif Togo, a worker on a cocoa plantation in Côte d’Ivoire.
Text: Daniel Košťál, photo: Stanislav Komínek and Lukáš Matěna, Pixabay
