The scourge of child labour in agriculture

A recent US government-funded report from National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that the world’s biggest chocolate companies had failed to achieve key targets set in 2010 to reduce the worst forms of child labour in their West African supply chains by 2020. According to the report, an estimated 1,56 million children were still involved in cacao-related child labour in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2019 (down from 2,1 million in 2014), of which 95% were found to be engaged in “hazardous child labour”.

(Cacao refers to the trees and the beans; cocoa, cocoa butter and chocolate are made from the beans.) A 2010 documentary, , investigated child labour on cacao plantations in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cacao beans. The film revealed that apart from these minors being employed illegally under hazardous work conditions, many had been trafficked from neighbouring