Ghanese chocolate gets fairer

In the USA, October isn’t just about pumpkins, halloween and changing leaves. It is also “fair trade month”, 31 days in which promote and celebrate economic and environmental justice and to highlight that trade is often unfair – especially to those producing the raw materials needed for the products we buy in the shops.

In a report called Time to Raise the Bar out in September, international human rights organisation Global Exchange blamed American chocolate giant Hershey for not having any policies that ensure the cocoa they use has not been produced without the use of labour exploitation. It also claims that a high percentage of Hershey workers in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana are victims of human trafficking, regular abuse and that child workers work without their parents or legal guardians.

But pro-fair trade chocoholics around the world received the good news last week that they will be able to trace cocoa beans from Ghana straight to the source with a new tagging tool developed by CI World, a specialist in tracking commodities in supply chains, and Armajaro, a London based commodities supply company.

Using handheld devices, Armajaro workers will scan uniquely numbered barcoded tags, secured to the individual cocoa sacks, at each stage of the supply chain. This data will then be uploaded into a central online system to allow Armajaro to reconcile, analyse and share information about the cocoa to improve overall traceability throughout the supply chain. This tracking will not reveal the exact profiles of workers, but the presence of the monitoring body will ensure that consumers and watch-dogs can trace sacks of cocoa beans to areas where there are reports of abused child workers and victims of human trafficking.

The initiative is being implemented in 4 districts in Ghana and all along the way, the CI World workers will be monitoring the Armajaro production process.

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