Chocolate Easter Eggs

It’s been a year since the last eco tip about chocolate, and since then, the price of chocolate in the UK has gone up 50% because of the increased occurrence of droughts, extreme heat, extreme rainfall and disease outbreaks, due to global warming in cocoa-growing countries.

Both Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are projected to be unable to produce cocoa by 2055.

The EU is forcing cocoa importers to name individual farms in an effort to stamp out child labour, which increases the costs to the importers, forcing prices up further. Another factor is the decrease in climate funds which go to cocoa-producing nations. They would have supported more sustainable agroforestry for these commodity crops like cocoa. Governments have saved themselves money but chocolate producers and consumers are paying for it.

Big corporations can find ways to hold prices down, by reducing package weight or by including less cocoa in their chocolate. But smaller chocolate makers are forced to pass on price increases and possibly go out of business.

So buy Fair Trade chocolate and remember that Fair Trade also helps the farmers to farm more sustainably in climate-friendly, forest-friendly ways.