The £61bn chocolate industry continues to grapple with shocking and unethical farming practices. Some 60 per cent of the world’s cocoa supply comes from West Africa, particularly Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where efforts to put an end to the exploitation of the millions of children involved in cocoa farming have been largely fruitless. A significant fraction of these child labourers are thought to be victims of trafficking or slavery.
The volatile price of cocoa in recent years has led to a surge in suppliers seeking to buy cheaper beans. These often come from deforested regions with lower-quality plants and evidence of human rights abuses, affecting the prices and practices of legitimate farmers and compromising sustainability gains.
Researchers from the University of Surrey and their colleagues have now published a Supply Chain Management study which describes how biomarkers could be used to identify ethically sourced chocolate.
These...