Move to Organic, Fair-Trade Cocoa Hampered by a Shortage of Supply

The chocolate industry on Vancouver Island might be spurred on by those looking for local flavours and interesting tastes, but the increased number of small manufacturers is also being nurtured by an international movement toward organic and fair-trade chocolate.

The $74-billion global chocolate industry has long toiled under a shadow cast by the knowledge that slave and forced child labour has been and is used to harvest cocoa beans in some regions -particularly West Africa, which produces about 70 per cent of the world's cocoa.

In 2000, the U.S. State Department reported that as many as 15,000 children between the ages of nine and 12 had been sold into forced labour on cotton, coffee and cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast.

The fallout from the report and increased exposure of the practice prompted some action, but it appears to be the smaller manufacturers who were best positioned to make the move to organic and fair-trade chocolate.

"It's available, but it is a very tiny part of the chocolate market," said chocolate expert David Mincey, owner of Camille's restaurant in Bastion Square. "As a manufacturer trying to source that in bulk to use as the base of its chocolate it's tough to find, there's not a lot in the marketplace."

According to the International Cocoa Organization, cocoa sold with the fair-trade label accounts for just 0.1 per cent of the cocoa market, while organic cocoa is just 0.5 per cent.

The World Cocoa Foundation estimates organic cocoa production at about 15,000 tonnes, while total cocoa production is estimated at three million tonnes.

Mincey said it's a tough crop to grow organically given the cocoa tree is considered fragile, prone to disease and requires a hot, damp climate.

Organic cocoa must not be produced with chemicals, including chemical fertilizers and pesticides, nor can farmers use additives to aid with growth and production.

Mincey also points out a lot of the world's cocoa producers are "not even close" to being fair-trade certified where farmers are guaranteed to get a fair price for their crops, which in turn offers better trading conditions and secures the rights of producers and workers.

"It's a tough road to go down, but I think you will see more of that over the next decade," he said, noting it starts with small steps. "There are people out there realizing there's a market out there for small-scale chocolate production."

Daniel Terry, owner of Denman Island Chocolate, which produces organic dark chocolate bars, said his organic certification and his suppliers' organic certification is at least a guarantee the chocolate he has sourced to make his bars comes from sustainably grown cocoa.

"For people concerned about the human sustainability of cocoa production issues like child slavery, organics is definitely a guarantee against that," he said. "But it's hard to find quality fair-trade and good quality organic fair-trade cocoa."

Though she sources relatively small amounts of chocolate, Sara Redpath of Ladysmith-based Sarandipity Chocolates thinks some companies are just not looking hard enough or willing to spend the money for the certified products.

"A lot of places have their token fair trade or organic bar, but I wanted to make all of my products from the more sustainable chocolate," she said. "It is extremely expensive, and as I'm already buying in smaller quantities I don't get much of a [price] break."

Kent Goodwin, co-owner of Organic Fair, said they only use organic and fair-trade chocolate in producing their bars, and the company has adopted the Direct Fair Trade Fund model to source their products.

On top of the premium paid for the goods, the model gives one per cent of all revenues back to the farms with which Organic Fair has a relationship.

The biggest Island manufacturer, Rogers' Chocolates, has established an organic line of chocolate products and has looked into sourcing fair-trade chocolate.

"I look forward to the day when we can say all of our chocolate is certified as fair trade and we do have enough supply and can still deliver on [customers'] expectation of quality and flavour of our chocolate," said Rogers' chief executive Steve Parkhill, noting because the company requires massive quantities of chocolate, they have been unable to secure a consistent supply of quality raw product.

"It's great to say you have some fair-trade chocolate, but do you have it 12 months of the year, and do you have it for all of your offerings or just half of them?"

Parkhill said the other barrier is fair-trade certification itself.

"It's my belief lots of companies make that claim, but I would challenge them to prove that the cocoa they are using is in fact fair trade because the certification process is cumbersome when the average farm in a cocoa-growing region is one acre in size," he said. "For example, in 500,000 acres of cocoa growing acreage in the Philippines, there are literally 500,000 farmers.

"Reaching them and educating them and certifying their cocoa is free of child-labour practices right through to delivery is a very difficult thing."

Parkhill said it's still something the company is striving for, and until they can ensure supply they have launched action to at least make a difference in those cocoa-growing regions.

"I can't directly influence cocoa farming practices on the Ivory Coast, but we've found a way to indirectly be involved through an adopt-a-village concept, where we work to help establish more sustainable communities."

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