World Cocoa Foundation facts for kids

The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is a group of over 90 companies that work together. Their main goal is to make sure that cocoa, which is used to make chocolate, is grown and sold in a fair and sustainable way. This means they want to help farmers, protect the environment, and make sure children are not working in cocoa fields.

However, some people believe that the WCF and its member companies haven't done enough. They say that problems like children working, forests being cut down, and farmers not earning enough money are still big issues. The WCF includes well-known chocolate makers like Mondelez International, Nestlé, The Hershey Company, and Mars, Inc.. It also includes companies that supply cocoa, like Barry Callebaut and Cargill, and even stores like Starbucks.

The Story of the World Cocoa Foundation

The World Cocoa Foundation started a long time ago, in 1995. It was first called the International Cocoa Research and Education Foundation. This group was part of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. On August 14, 2000, it changed its name to the World Cocoa Foundation. The original Chocolate Manufacturers Association later joined another group in 2008.

In 2022, a report called the Cocoa Barometer pointed out something important. It noted that the WCF's leadership team, called the board, did not have members from West Africa. West Africa is where a lot of the world's cocoa is grown.

What the WCF Aims to Do

The World Cocoa Foundation has a big dream. They want the cocoa industry to be strong, fair, and healthy for everyone. This means they want to help farmers earn more money. They also want to stop forests from being cut down. And a very important goal is to prevent children from working in cocoa production.

Some studies have looked at how much money chocolate companies put into these efforts. One study estimated it was about 0.5% of their total sales. This same study suggested that the salaries of top leaders in these companies might be similar to, or even more than, the money spent helping cocoa farmers. For fighting child labor specifically, one estimate said companies invested about 0.1% of their yearly sales.

Helping Children and Stopping Child Labor

The WCF announced a plan in 2019 called "Children First." This plan aimed to stop all forms of child labor by the year 2025. However, this specific initiative has not yet officially started.

Child labor in cocoa farming means that children are working instead of going to school. They often do hard and sometimes dangerous jobs. This problem has been around for many years and is still common in some cocoa-growing areas.

In 2019, a newspaper called The Washington Post looked into this issue. It reported that big chocolate companies had promised years ago to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet, the report found that many chocolate products still came from farms where children worked. The article shared stories of children from Burkina Faso working in tough conditions in Côte d’Ivoire.

A 2020 study from the University of Chicago found that child labor in cocoa production had actually increased. This was true in countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The Washington Post called this a big disappointment. It meant that chocolate companies had not kept their promise to remove child labor from their supply chains. The WCF President at the time, Richard Scobey, suggested that the goals might have been too ambitious.

Even though WCF member companies say their chocolate is free of child labor, news reports have often found otherwise. For example, in 2022, a TV investigation in Britain found children as young as 10 working on farms in Ghana. These farms supplied cocoa for Cadbury's, a brand owned by Mondelēz International. Another investigation in 2023 by CBS News found children as young as five working on Mars cocoa farms in Ghana. These farms supplied cocoa for popular brands like Snickers and M&Ms.

The chocolate industry has set several deadlines to end child labor over the years. These deadlines were in 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2020. Unfortunately, they missed all of these targets. This has led many people to question how serious the industry is about solving the problem.

Helping Cocoa Farmers Earn More Money

From 2001 to 2012, the World Cocoa Foundation ran projects to help farmers earn more. These projects received money from the United States Agency for International Development. In 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave the WCF a $23 million grant. This money was to help farming families earn more by growing better cocoa and other crops. Another grant of $8.9 million from the Gates Foundation in 2014 also aimed to improve the lives of farmers in West Africa.

The CocoaAction program started in June 2014 and finished in 2019. This program was a voluntary effort by many top chocolate companies. They wanted to work together to improve farmer incomes. The World Cocoa Foundation helped these companies coordinate their efforts. By 2019, nine major companies were part of CocoaAction. These included Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Ferrero, The Hershey Company, Mars, Inc., Mondelez International, and Nestlé. They focused their work in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

A 2020 review by KPMG found that CocoaAction did not fully meet its goals. For example, it aimed for 300,000 farmers to use new farming methods by 2020. However, only 1,165 farmers actually did so. This was less than one percent of the target. The review also noted that the program's plans did not involve enough input from local people or governments. This meant that local communities did not feel enough ownership of the projects.

In 2018, the WCF started a similar program called CocoaAction Brasil. This program worked to support sustainable cocoa farming in Brazil.

In 2022, the countries of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana did not attend the WCF Partnership Meeting. They were concerned about low cocoa prices and how this affected farmer incomes. The 2022 Cocoa Barometer report stated that problems in cocoa farming would continue. It said this would happen until companies paid farmers much more for their cocoa beans. The WCF President, Chris Vincent, explained that the WCF cannot discuss cocoa prices. This is because of laws that prevent companies from working together to set prices.

Protecting Forests from Cocoa Farming

In 2018, the World Cocoa Foundation started the Cocoa & Forests Initiative. This project had support from The Prince of Wales. It brings together the governments of Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Colombia. It also includes 35 chocolate and cocoa companies. Some of the founding members are The Hershey Company, Nestlé, and Mondelez International. A key part of this initiative is mapping farms and planting new trees. This helps to grow more trees and protect forest areas.

The World Cocoa Foundation reported that good progress was made in the first four years. However, an environmental group called Mighty Earth said more work was needed. They urged chocolate companies to work more closely with governments. They wanted to create a better system to track and stop deforestation.

A review by Reuters after five years of the initiative found that it had not done enough. It said that not enough money was available. Also, it was hard to trace where cocoa came from. And companies did not always work together well enough to protect large forest areas.