Tony's Chocolonely: The story of an unusual chocolate bar

Hello there!

Tony'sChocolonely is a Dutch confectionery company focused on producing and selling chocolate closely following fair trade practices, strongly opposing slavery and child labour by partnering with trading companies in Ghana and Ivory Coast to buy cocoa beans directly from the farmers, providing them with a fair price for their product and combatting exploitation.

The number of available bar flavours vary by country and distribution channel. For example, over a dozen flavors are available in the Netherlands. In the United States, the available flavors of the chocolate bars are:

• Milk chocolate 32%
• Extra Dark chocolate 70%
• Milk caramel sea salt 32%
• Dark almond sea salt 51%
• Dark milk pretzel toffee 42%
• Dark pecan coconut 51%
• Milk hazelnut 32%
• Milk honey almond nougat 32%
• White Raspberry Popping Candy 28%

The company introduces three new chocolate bar flavours each year between October and December. The most popular of the three limited editions are then added to the permanent collection.

As I mentioned before, the company has set the goal to make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate.

The problem

Things aren't shared fairly in the chocolate supply chain. The chain starts with the millions of farmers that produce cocoa and ends with the billions of consumers that enjoy chocolate. But what about the bit in between? This section is dominated by a group of chocolate giants that profit from keeping the cocoa purchasing price as low as possible. For the farmers, this creates a poverty trap that leads to child labour and slavery.

Right now, slaves are working on cocoa farms in West Africa. Many of them are children. Tony’s Chocolonely exists to change that. Child labour and modern slavery are illegal and they have to stop.

What people can do about it?

All of the players in the cocoa supply chain have a certain responsibility – starting with the chocolate companies. If chocolate companies pay a higher price, cocoa farmers can earn a decent income for their families.

choco friends

• know what you’re buying: ask chocolate companies to be transparent
• choose consciously
• sign petitions, support campaigns and use your social network
  
  

 retailers

• don’t skimp on price
• a higher price provides a living income for the farmer
• insist on traceability
  
  

chocolate companies

• follow Tony's recipe for slave free cocoa- the 5 ingredients are:

1. traceable beans
2. a higher price that provides a living income for the farmer
3. the long-term
4. strong farmers
5. better quality and productivity

cocoa farmers

• never accept illegal child labour, slavery or exploitation: let children go to school
• improve quality and productivity
• work together: strong cooperatives with strong farmers
  
  

politicians in cocoa-producing countries

• develop a vision and action plan: enforce existing laws
• be transparent about tax revenues derived from cocoa and how this money is channelled back into cocoa communities to improve infrastructure and education
• push for quality and traceability of cocoa beans

policy in cocoa-consuming countries

• develop an action plan to address labour and human rights abuses, include implementation of relevant international laws and regulations: conventions exist but they are not enforced
• companies must be legally obliged to be transparent about their supply chain (due diligence) and explain what they're doing to prevent slavery and child labour within this supply chain

More information can be found here: https://tonyschocolonely.com/int/en