Chocolate for Future

Chocolate For Future

Probably the sweetest demonstration in South Tyrol!



Everyone knows it, everyone loves it – the chocolate Santa Claus.

In South Tyrol, the chocolate friend makes us happy, but rarely the cocoa farmers near the equator. To draw attention to the unfair conditions in cocoa production, numerous demonstration Santas are protesting until December 6, due to COVID-19 on Facebook & Instagram and in South Tyrol’s world shops. To spread this important message among the South Tyrolean population, any means of (transport) is acceptable to them. Naturally, as environmentally friendly as possible!

Chocolate makes people in the Global North happy when eating it, but rarely the cocoa farmers near the equator. In West African countries such as Ivory Coast and Ghana, 90 percent of smallholder farms are dependent on cocoa cultivation. The income of farmers in Ivory Coast, for example, is only half a euro per day and is far below the poverty line, which is set at two euros per day.

It is different with fair trade. Fair trade aims to improve the living and working conditions of people at the beginning of the supply chain and strengthen their political and economic position. The World Fair Trade Organization unites 412 producer organizations, importers, and retailers of fair trade in 76 countries worldwide and is the only global network composed of actors along the entire fair trade value chain.

Fair trade Santa Clauses and chocolate in South Tyrol’s world shops therefore offer an alternative to conventional trade. Fair trade chocolate is now also offered in many supermarkets. Santa Clauses from fair trade are recognizable by the seal, which is intended to ensure that chocolate consumption in the North does not cause unacceptable working conditions in cocoa-producing countries in the Global South.



Facts and Figures

  • Worldwide, more than 100 billion euros are generated annually with cocoa. Many want a piece of this huge chocolate cake: According to Caobisco, the European association of chocolate, biscuit, and confectionery industries, more than 12,000 companies in Europe process cocoa. However, the 5.5 million cocoa farmers and the total of 14 million people who live from cocoa near the equator only see crumbs of it. Currently, producers receive only 6.6 percent of the sales price of chocolate on the shelves of South Tyrolean stores.
  • There is high market concentration in the cocoa supply chain:
    Three major corporations dominate cocoa processing. Barry Callebaut (29%), Cargill (19%), and Olam (17%) operate in the background but control around 65% of the global cocoa harvest and can thus influence cocoa prices.
    In chocolate production as well, only six companies share 40% of the market, including Mars (9.9%), Nestlé (7.7%), Ferrero Group (6.8%), Mondelez (6.7%), Hershey (6.2%), and Lindt & Sprüngli (3.2%).
  • An estimated 2 million children work under exploitative conditions in cocoa production in West Africa alone. Child labor is a symptom of deeper problems: the extreme poverty of farming families, the lack of schools and quality education, inadequate local infrastructure, and insufficient awareness of the importance of education.
  • Every German consumes 12.2 kilograms of chocolate per year; figures for South Tyrol are not available, the average for Italy is 3.9 kilograms per year.