The chocolate industry is not what you know from advertising. This industry often uses child slaves who have to work on cocoa plantations. Côte d’Ivoire is the largest producer of cocoa. In 2001, the lucrative chocolate industry, due to pressure from NGOs, committed itself to putting an end to child labor in cacao plantations before 2006. However, this promise has not been fulfilled and child slaves are still working on the plantations. The government built schools and coached farmers.
Child labor on plantations
Television adverts even reminded populations that child labor is illegal. So why does child exploitation still exist? Further into isolated areas of the forest, at the end of near-impassable roads, Paul Moreira discovered child slaves, forced to work in plantations, their incomes often seized by traffickers. Child slaves are separated from their parents at a young age and have to work hard on plantations. See below a document from Java Discover that shows what the dark face of the chocolate industry looks like.
