Tag: child labor

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The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 2

Yesterday, I reported that the situation regarding child labor in West Africa does not seem to have improved much since 2001 if we look at the initial surveys conducted in Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire. Today, I’d like to focus on what the industry has done so far to address these issues and live up to the obligations it accepted in 2001.

The industry has established the International Cocoa Initiative, a foundation with the mission to “to oversee and sustain efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and forced labour in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derivative products.” How has it fared? In its 2006 annual report, the most recent available on its web site, the foundation reports that, through its programs, 3,844 children “have been withdrawn from or spared the worst forms of child labor.” The report is somewhat vague as to what the program entails, but reports that it involves a community based approach to bring about sustainable change and abolish “improper” employment practices. Interestingly, the plans “are reliant on the programs of governments and existing donors” indicating that not a whole lot of new money is being expended to implement new programs. Continue reading “The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 2”

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The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 1

The most important component of the 2001 Harkin-Engel protocol was the requirement that the industry develop “credible, mutually acceptable, voluntary, industry-wide standards of public certification, consistent with applicable federal law, that cocoa beans and their derivative products have been grown and/or processed without any of the worst forms of child labor” by July 2005.

As we know, that deadline came and went without such a standard in place. The extension of the deadline until 2008 modified the original requirement and required the certification scheme to cover only 50% of the cocoa growing areas of Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire while maintaining 100% coverage as the ultimate goal. Continue reading “The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 1”

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Will cocoa prices keep going up?

One of the points often ignored in the whole debate about child labor in West Africa is the fact that cocoa prices were at an all time low just when the first reports of child slavery emerged in the Western press. According to IMF price data, the average price in 2000 was $903/metric ton, a bare shadow of the $3,791 cocoa commanded in 1977. And these aren’t just a few market swings. There’s been a long term decline in cocoa prices.

Over the past months and years, however, the prices have increased somewhat. There’re still nowhere near the high points of the late 1970s, but they have been consistently above  $2,000/metric ton for December 2007, reaching as high as $2,210 before falling off again. In a report, the ICCO indicated that for 2007, cocoa prices increased by 23% in New York. While there are some indications that investment funds, reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis, are looking for another speculative vehicle, there are also indications that the world supply of cocoa is not keeping up with demand. For the cocoa year 2006/07, the ICCO’s revised estimate shows a growing gap between total production and total cocoa grindings. If this represents a new trend then there may be some hope that the increase in prices will allow farmers to higher adults rather than children on their farms.

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U.S. Lawmakers visit Côte d’Ivoire to check progress on child labor

Tom Harkin and Elliot Engel who crafted the voluntary child labor protocol in 2001 are visiting the Côte d’Ivoire to get a first hand look at progress made to eliminate the worst forms of child labor there. They are unlikely to find much. The 2005 deadline in the original protocol passed without any measurable progress. The chocolate industry promised a system by 2008 but last October the Payson Institute at Tulane University indicated that there was no indication that such a system as emerging. It is therefore doubtful that the 2008 deadline will be kept and that there will be a system in place that can assure consumers that the cocoa in their chocolate bars was not produced by children who worked either in dangerous circumstances or who were forced to work without pay.

NY cocoa futures March delivery: $2131

Côte d’Ivoire cocoa spot price: $2468