For most children in the UK, Easter eggs come from the Easter bunny. But a new documentary exposes where our chocolate actually comes from, with allegations of exploitation in the Cadbury supply chain.
A Channel 4 investigation claims children as young as 10 in Ghana are harvesting cocoa beans for food industry giant Mondelēz International, which owns Cadbury.
Undercover footage in a Dispatches film broadcast on Monday shows children barefoot, wearing shorts and T-shirts, using machetes to harvest cocoa pods and clear weeds, wielding sharpened sticks to open the beans. Farmers are paid less than £2 a day, according to campaigners, and say they can’t afford to employ adults.
Anthony Barnett, the documentary reporter said: “Our investigation links Cadbury to child labour for the first time and shows how the brand has been misleading consumers on how ethical its chocolate really is.”
A spokesperson for Mondelēz International said “We’re deeply concerned by the incidents documented in the Dispatches programme. We explicitly prohibit child labour in our operations and have been working relentlessly to take a stand against this.”
Mondelēz proudly proclaims its ethical credentials through its Cocoa Life programme, an initiative intended to remove child labour in its supply chain, prevent deforestation and “empower communities”.