Chocolates Bittersweet Economy
Chocolate’s Bittersweet Economy
Issues involved
The main issue discussed in this article is that of illegal child labor in the cocoa industry in the South Western Ivory Coast, Africa, mainly illustrated with the example of the small village Sinikosson. 70 percent of all cocoa beans are grown in Africa, and 40 percent alone in the Ivory Coast, making it the number one profit of the country. Villages lack electricity, running water, health services and schools, and the cocoa harvesting season is a rough climatic challenge where children work under brutal conditions.
Outside of Sinikosson, children, mostly under the age of ten, wield cocoa plants with machetes, handle pesticides and carry heavy loads at the cost of their education, health, and with severe consequences such as frequent work accidents. The parents of the children cannot afford school fees and hence, the children have to help feed the family, which prevents them from getting a proper education and harms their physique at an early age. Officially, Ivory Coast law bans child labor and the official working age is eighteen. However, there are several reasons and factors of why children still do not have the possibility to go to school and spend their time with hard labor instead.
Causes
Essentially poverty is the main reason for child labor in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry. If prices of cocoa are high, farmers can afford an education for their children. With incomes low, parents depend on government to provide for education, which in turn depends on the fiscal system fed by taxes from citizen's income. A vicious circle. Cocoa prices have been declining in recent years because of corruption and poorly planned economic liberalization. And if cocoa prices should rise in the next couple of years as a consequence of increased demand in China, India and other emerging markets and an increase in financial speculation on natural resources, who...
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