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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-29 Daily Xml
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CHOCOLATE

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:33): With Easter behind us, I would like to reflect a little on chocolate and fair trade. Just before Easter, the Hon. Mr Brokenshire gave us his heartfelt views on the true meaning of Easter, and his sincerely held religious beliefs associated with that holiday were movingly related to us all.

Some of us with no such faith also celebrate and embrace Easter. We take the opportunity to celebrate with our families and spend time together over the break. We also engage in the buying, giving and, yes, I must say, consumption of chocolate. This may be the consumerist side of Easter that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire seemed to be warning us about; and, if so, I must own up that I embrace it, and I do celebrate by giving small gifts of precious chocolates to those whom I love.

That divinely luscious substance has no peer in the world. I can say that I know of only one person in my wide acquaintance who dislikes chocolate, and that seems to stem not from an innate aversion but a learned one arising from an episode in early childhood of massive over consumption to the point of illness, which is the first lesson I wish to impart today.

In relation to chocolate, it is best to love it wisely and not too often. Associated with such an approach, I can recommend that, in the field of chocolate, quality is to be preferred over quantity. If one keeps those two principles in mind—and I know too well it can be a difficult discipline to master—one can have an enjoyable relationship with this amazing substance.

There is a third rule that I would like to encourage members here to consider, which I will come to presently. However, chocolate does have a dark side.

In many countries of the world, chocolate is produced under slave labour conditions often by children. In cocoa-farming countries in recent years, more and more farmers have entered the cocoa market seduced by an industry where it appeared that on minimal land they could make a healthy return on the beans that would be processed into chocolate.

However, rather than securing a healthy return, cocoa farmers have found themselves living in poverty, barely able to sustain themselves or their families. In this reality, all hands on deck are required just to exist, and this means that all family members, children included, are required so that these farmers can eke out a living.

Children of eight or nine are working on cocoa farms wielding machetes and lugging massive loads so that their families will not starve, so that they will continue to have a place to live and so that we can continue to eat chocolate. While chocolate prices have remained relatively stable in countries like Australia, middlemen have become rich off the backs of these children. It is estimated that in the West African cocoa-growing region, where 70 per cent of the world's cocoa is grown, there are more than a quarter of a million children working on the cocoa farms in hazardous conditions.

However, it is not only the children of cocoa farmers who are being used on these farms. As farmers become more desperate to create profit, many of them are turning to human trafficking to supplement their workforce. It is suspected that more than 15,000 children have been sold into slavery in recent years to Ivory Coast plantations. Most of these children are under 14 and are involved in dangerous jobs. They do not receive education or health care and are often subjected to physical abuse. In just one year, police in the Ivory Coast liberated 200 children from slavery on cocoa farms.

The revenue that comes from cocoa production is critical for sustaining the economies of West African nations—economies that are already precarious. In fact, 33 per cent of Ghana's total export earnings comes from cocoa, as does 40 per cent of those of the Ivory Coast. I am not calling for a boycott of these products. A boycott would not have the desired effect; it would just punish those whom we seek to help. The large multinationals can absorb lost revenue, while the tiny primary producer, who is only just getting by at the moment, cannot.

Instead, I speak of this in the hope that, by focusing on this issue, we can awaken the consciousness of those in a position to change the situation. I am calling for ethical purchasing on the part of those living in First World countries whose dollars have the power to change practices in Third World nations. That is my third chocolate rule: check where your chocolate comes from and how it is produced.

I wrote to Haigh's Chocolates just before Easter and the response was very positive. That is a company that is doing the right thing by its Australian suppliers by buying Australian milk and sugar and its international suppliers by buying ethical cocoa. Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia is working towards a certification process for Australian chocolate manufacturers, and Fair Trade Australia currently offers a certification process whereby consumers are able to buy products farmed and manufactured in fair conditions in developing countries. Fair work practices and a decent wage are a right that all people should enjoy, and chocolate lovers can do their bit to support better conditions for cocoa workers by supporting fair trade chocolate.

Time expired.

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