Cocoa And Slavery

A human rights group has asked the U.S. Customs Service to bar imports of cocoa from Ivory Coast unless shippers can prove it was grown free of child-slave labor, a ban that would disrupt chocolate and cocoa production worldwide.

The International Labor Rights Fund said on Friday that its request dovetailed with an global effort by labor watchdogs, foodmakers, millers, anti-slavery and consumer groups to end the use of bonded child labor in cocoa-growing West Africa.

Members of that effort are leery of imposing a ban that could undermine their step-by-step plan to discourage use of child-slave labor and, by 2005 at the latest, certify output that did not rely on abusive labor practices.

"Cutting off imports is a strategy. We don't think it's the right one for this situation," said Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves, who pointed to slavery in cocoa production in 2000. "The economy of the country is absolutely dependent on cocoa."

Ivory Coast grows more than 40 percent of world's cocoa, the primary ingredient in making chocolate. Neighboring Ghana, the second-largest producer, grows 15 percent. The world crop was estimated at nearly 2,900 tons for the 2001/02 crop year.

Two-thirds of all cocoa products are consumed in Europe and North America.

In a letter to Customs Commissioner Richard Bonner, ILRF said there is "ample evidence" to enforce a law against imports of goods made with forced or indentured child labor. It asked for an investigation, followed by the ban. The Customs Service had no immediate response.

"The only exception to the ban should be if an importer can demonstrate with independent and credible evidence that his or her particular shipment was not harvested with prohibited child labor," the rights group said.

ILRF said its request would fit hand-in-hand with the global effort to create a certification system.

"We feel the potential of sanctions will have a positive effect for driving the process along," said Bama Athreya of ILRF.

Revelations of child slave labor on cocoa farms has sparked proposals in Congress to allow special labels for foods produced free of slave labor.

Chocolate importers, millers, child rights, consumer and labor groups signed a protocol last year calling for study to assess the causes and scope of child-slave labor and creation of a certification system. Results of the study of hundreds of farms is expected in June.

"There really is progress being made," said Susan Smith of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a U.S. trade group.

"We believe the vast majority of (cocoa) farmers are honest and hard-working ... Cocoa is their livelihood. It's how they feed their families."

Many farms are small, relying on family labor to harvest the cocoa beans.

There have been estimates of 15,000 child slaves, some brought from Mali and Burkina Faso, working on the hundreds of thousands of cocoa, coffee and cotton farms in Ivory Coast.

"The bottom line is it's happening and it's large scale," said Marx-Vilaire Aristide, a research economist who recently spent two weeks in Ivory Coast for ILRF.

Aristide said his interviews with growers found that when they needed labor during the harvest season, they turned to a labor supplier who guaranteed workers for the harvest. "Their relationship they have with the kids is always through the middleman."