News and Events
- Sugar - the not so sweet side
SUGAR - THE NOT SO SWEET SIDE...
Sugar is a product that most of us consume on a daily basis. Yet how many of us spend any real time pondering the source of this sweet product… Sugar is produced in more than 100 countries around the world, from Europe through to the tropics. Around two thirds of all this sugar is produced from sugar cane with the remainder coming from sugar beet.
Sugar – the problem
Unfair trade - While farmers in the developing world might expect to be very competitive in the world market as a result of their ability to produce sugar at relatively low cost, they are unable to compete on fair and level terms with many western sugar producers.
Subsidies and Tariffs - The European Union, the United States and Japan heavily subsidize domestic production and maintain high tariffs on imports. This combination of tariffs and subsidies has led to overproduction by their own producers, and a dumping of excess sugar onto world markets which has depressed global sugar prices.
The combination of low returns and general fluctuations in world sugar prices makes it very hard for the most disadvantaged of producers – the small-scale sugar growers of the developing world – to earn a living wage from their harvests.
The effect of "free trade" - Within international trade bodies, especially in the World Trade Organization, non-subsidizing sugar producing countries have long argued that because these large Western sugar markets overpay their local producers and don’t let cane sugar imports in (aside from some imports from a few selected trading partners), the rest of the world’s producers receive lower prices than they would under truly free trade conditions. The WTO recently sided with a group of cane sugar exporting nations (led by Brazil and Australia) and ruled the European Union’s Sugar Régime and it’s accompanying ACP-EU Sugar Protocol (whereby a group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries receive preferential access to the European sugar market) to be illegal.
The EU has now begun a process of tariff reductions as well as price cuts for it’s local producers. The US sugar industry is the next target for reform but sugar lobbyists there – renowned for their deep pockets and their willingness to donate large sums of money to both major political parties – present a major obstacle to change.
Environmental problems
Sugar production is believed to be responsible for more environmental damage to the planet than any other crop.
Vast habitats rich in plants and animals, including tropical rainforests, have been cleared to make way for sugar to be grown. Large areas of soil have been eroded and degraded through sugar production.
Huge amounts of herbicides and pesticides are sprayed on to most of the world’s sugar crops; in the most local example, the runoff of toxic chemicals from sugar cane is blamed for the extensive destruction of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Further afield, phosphorus-rich runoff from sugar plantations is credited with destroying much of the Florida Everglades.
The burning and processing of sugar crops can also cause serious pollution of the ground, waterways and the air, while intensive sugar cultivation can seriously deplete water supplies.
Low prices for sugar farmers in the developing world also place an increasing burden on their local environments; without sufficient returns for their crops, environmental standards are inevitably compromised
The Solution – Fairer trade, organic production
Fairer trading terms are needed to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged farmers and to help them to better protect their environments.
Trade Aid purchases its sugar from some of the lowest-impact sugar producers in the world, and through our ability to trade directly with co-operatives under fairer terms we can most effectively address the need to provide better returns to growers.
At the same time, our trade rewards organic production and supports a more sustainable method of sugar production.
- A bit o' sweet justice for wal-mart
The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been ordered to pay an additional $62m in compensation to workers who were forced to work during breaks" read more here on clipmarks.com.
- Yet again cocoa giants fail to serve up any sweet justice
In 2001, the media showed the world the extent of forced child labor and trafficking on many West African cocoa farms - people were horrified. Major chocolate companies signed up to the Harkin-Engel Protocol and made promises to eliminate the worst forms of child labor from their supply chains by July 1 2008... Once again the cocoa industry has missed this deadline! Learn more about this Harkin Engel Protocol on the Labour Rights webpage.
- Read the latest VITAL article and interview with our sugar producers...
Just in time for the Easter sugar rush, Sweet Justice fair trade organic sugar, grown and milled in Paraguay is an environment-friendly alternative for the sweetest tooth
Read our latest article on our sugar producers in Trade Aid's latest VITAL magazine - including an interview with the president of the co-operative Luis Ruiz Diaz. Read this article here.
- Trade Aid hot chocolate - 2nd best in NZ
Trade Aid was rated 2nd in a consumer magazine taste test of New Zealand hot chocolate brands. Not only one of the tastiest in New Zealand, but also with the biggest serving of justice..for the cocoa and sugar farmers!
Login and check out the report on consumer.org.nz http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/print-view/drinking-chocolate and try some for yourself this winter... it is delicious!
- OFF THE PRESS: Trade Aid slavery campaign press releaseMedia Release - 11/8/09
Is chocolate leaving a bad taste in our mouths?
New Zealand chocolate industry challenged to say it’s slave free.
The not-for-profit organisation Trade Aid is urging New Zealand consumers to challenge chocolate manufacturers over the use of cocoa made with child slave labour.
Trade Aid wants chocolate makers to answer the simple question; “Can you put a slave-free label on it? Yes or no – no ifs, buts or maybes.”Slavery and especially child slavery is endemic within the chocolate industry. West Africa supplies nearly 80% of the world’s cocoa, according to the International Labour Organisation, with 46% coming from Ivory Coast. In 2005 ILO claimed there were over 150,000 children working under the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast alone. An estimated 12,000 of whom had been trafficked – very disturbing figures for chocolate lovers.
“Children as young as 10 or 11 are being bought by cocoa plantation owners and forced to work 12 hours a day under extreme conditions. At night they’re locked up in tiny rooms together with hardly any light or ventilation and only a tin can as a toilet. These kids are being forced to carry massive loads jeopardising their health, and if they can’t manage they’re savagely beaten” says Trade Aid General Manager, Geoff White.
Many New Zealand chocolate companies source their cocoa beans from Ghana and simply claim Ghana does not have a child slavery problem. Geoff White says “This may well have been the case a few years ago. But, faced with unfair competition in the form of lower prices from neighbouring Ivory Coast, cocoa farmers in Ghana are beginning to use child labour and look set to follow the downward spiral into the use of child slaves. Already it is no longer possible to say purchasing from Ghana ensures no child slaves are involved in the supply chain.”
As the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition nears on Sunday August 23, the Non Government Organisation Trade Aid wants all chocolate manufacturers to declare whether or not their product is slave free in a simple yes or no answer.
In 2007 following a 17,000 strong Trade Aid petition to ban the import of goods made with slave labour, Government recommended companies voluntarily label products slave-free. Just last month a bill to ban such products coming in to New Zealand was rejected in parliament.
New Zealand chocolate companies all have Codes of Conduct and Corporate Social Responsibility statements that testify to their moral upstanding. But Geoff White says “If they do not know where and from whom they source their cocoa these words are meaningless.”
So will the likes of Cadbury and Whittakers come clean about slave labour in their cocoa supply? Geoff White says “If Kiwi consumers thought their favourite chocolate bars were made from the suffering of child slaves, they’d think again about buying it. This leaves a very bad taste in any chocolate lovers mouth, and we urge them to challenge the manufacturers.”
Trade Aid can prove its chocolate is slave free because it is part of a fair trade system which is both socially responsible and transparent. Justin Purser, Trade Aid’s Food manager says “We buy our cocoa and sugar from producer-owned co-operatives which are focused on improving the lives of their members. We know which cooperatives our cocoa beans and sugar comes from, we know they are all certified and therefore audited by an independent organisation to ensure they follow accepted production standards. These standards prohibit the use of slaves or bonded labour, or of work being carried out by children which would interfere with their education.”
The proof that other NZ companies are not slave free is simply that they themselves don’t know. They don’t know what plantations they buy from, as they buy at auctions and from cocoa boards. Justin Purser says “Through these centralised buying processes the companies can’t trace the beans, which is convenient for them as they then can’t be held accountable for participating in the slavery that exists within their industry. However when a problem is endemic in an industry, lack of traceability is a big problem.”
Trade Aid: Building just and sustainable communities through Fair Trade.
To arrange interviews and images or for further information contact:
Geoff White
General Manager, Trade Aid
Tel. 03 385 3535
Email: geoff.white@tradeaid.org.nzJustin Purser
Food Manager, Trade Aid
Tel. 03 385 3535
Email: justin.purser@tradeaid.org.nzHow Trade Aid knows its chocolate is slave free and the others don't!Trade Aid can prove its chocolate is slave free because it is part of a fair trade system which is both socially responsible and transparent.
We buy our cocoa and sugar from producer-owned co-operatives which are focused on improving the lives of their members. We know which cooperatives our cocoa beans and sugar comes from, we know they are all certified and therefore audited by an independent organisation to ensure they follow accepted production standards. These standards prohibit the use of slaves or bonded labour, or of work being carried out by children which would interfere with their education.
The proof that other NZ companies are not slave free is simply that they themselves don’t know. They don’t know what plantations they buy from, as they buy at auctions and from cocoa boards. Through these centralised buying processes the companies can’t trace the beans, which is convenient for them as they then can’t be held accountable for participating in the slavery that exists within their industry. However when a problem is endemic in an industry, lack of traceability is a big problem.
Take Action!The question Trade Aid is encouraging chocolate lovers to ask is as simple as this:
Q: Can you put a slave free label on your chocolate? No ifs, buts or maybes - YES or NO?
Write, phone or email a chocolate maker using these contacts to find out:
- Cadburys New Zealand
Phone: 0800 223 2879
Mail: Cadbury Ltd, Freepost 577, PO Box 890, Dunedin
email contact - Whittaker J H & Sons Ltd
Phone: (04) 237 5021
Fax: (04) 237 4743
Mail: Whittaker J H & Sons Ltd, Mohuia Cre Elsdon, Porirua
email contact - Nestle New Zealand Limited
Phone: 0800 830 840
Mail: Consumer Services Department, PO Box 1784, Auckland 1015
email contact - Richfields
Phone: 0800 RICHFIELDS
Fax (03) 365-0869
Mail: PO Box 11111, Christchurch
email contact
When you receive a reply from the chocolate makers let us know what they had to say!
- Join the facebook group to post your replies on the discussion board, or email us your replies.
Chocolate slavery makes headlinesCheck out the latest news articles on this campaign
- Marlborough Express - 24 Aug 09
Fight against slavery continues - Stuff.co.nz - 22 Aug 09
Beware of slavery in chocolate - read the article and watch the video - Close Up - 20 Aug 09
Fair trade chocolate on the menu - Otago Daily Times - 20 Aug 09
Bitter treat consumer issue - opinion - Stuff.co.nz - 7 Aug 09
Chocolate lovers are taking on slavery - Stuff.co.nz - 12 April 09
Chocolate's dark secret: Slavery claims leave bitter taste
