Good news: our bar is becoming (slightly) more expensive!
Now we hear you thinking: Huh? What do you mean, good news? We are happy to explain this to you.
Rising prices
In recent weeks there has been a lot of attention in the press about a so-called cocoa crisis and unaffordable chocolate bars. Some people think that there will be a major shortage of cocoa and others, like us, do not believe so much. What we do know is that cocoa prices on the world market have increased by 40% since 2011 (source: ICCO). Important causes of this are indeed rising demand and disappointing harvests, but also that there are traders in the industry who speculate in cocoa.
You would think that a rising price is a good thing, because then there is more money for the farmers, right? But that is unfortunately not the case. Farmers hardly benefit from the higher prices. So multinationals can say they are concerned about a cocoa shortage, but a simple start to the solution is to pay a higher price to farmers. In our opinion, they really don't feel like doing that. And that's where the real problem lies: poverty among the farmers.
Too low price for the farmer
It is difficult for farmers in West Africa to earn enough money from cocoa. This is one of the main reasons for child labor on the plantations. Due to the low prices, farmers cannot invest in their plantations, they have increasingly lower harvests and often live below the poverty line. But even if all cocoa farmers farmed very professionally and their production increased, they would still live in poverty. The price they receive per kilo of cocoa is simply too low.
And we care about that, because our mission is a 100% slave-free chocolate industry. Last year, in collaboration with True Price, we calculated how much a professional farmer would have to earn to have an income above the poverty line.
By paying a 25% premium (directly to the farmer) and investing in improving production, they can exceed this limit.
One step closer to 100% slave-free
That is what we will do. Because we work directly with our partner cooperatives, we know exactly where our cocoa comes from and this year we are taking another step by paying the cooperatives a 25% premium on top of the established farm gate price. We are aware that this has not yet solved the problem, but we are one step closer.
At the same time, we cannot escape the rising market price for cocoa on the world market. Even though we work directly with the farmers' cooperatives, we still have to follow international rules and pay the world market price. We were able to absorb this internally for a long time, but in order to continue our mission, we are now forced to share this price increase fairly. With you. Because if we all have a little more left for good chocolate, we can together ensure that farmers get a better income, and the cocoa will not run out so quickly.
So pretty good news...
So our bars are becoming a little more expensive. We are not secretive about that. More expensive because of the market and because of continuing our mission. And so you get a bar that tastes even better, because you know what it's like. And we think that's good news!