How a chocolate bar is fighting human trafficking.

You may have seen their colorful packaging at your local grocery store—a blue chocolate bar wrapper, with the name “Tony’s” in bold, red letters.

But Tony's chocolate is no ordinary chocolate bar.

In fact, written all over their packaging is a clear message: 100% slave-free chocolate.

Tony's Chocolonely is on a mission to eradicate modern slavery from the chocolate supply chain. Their efforts aren't going unnoticed, either—last week they were awarded the 2022 Stop Slavery Award from Thomson Reuters.

So what's up with chocolate?

The inside of a Tony's chocolate bar wrapper tells the story: how the cocoa supply chain currently works, and how farmers are caught in a poverty trap which leads to forced trafficking and child labor.

The chain starts with the millions of farmers (60% of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa: Ghana and the Ivory Coast to be exact. The cocoa comes from approximately 2.5 million farms.)

These farms produce cocoa for a small handful of multinational chocolate corporations.

The chocolate is then ground into cocoa powder, turned into chocolate, and sold to billions of chocolate-loving consumers.

"The bit in the middle is where it goes wrong," Tony's writes on their website. "Big chocolate companies want to keep the price they pay the farmers inhumanely low. Farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast receive the farm gate price per kilo and are rarely encouraged to operate more professionally and improve the quality of their crop."

At Tony's Chocolonely, they are committed to creating a 100% slavery free chocolate supply chain by implementing 5 key practices:

Traceable beans, guaranteeing that they come from their partner cooperatives.
Paying a premium for cocoa that provides farmers with a fair living wage.
Empowering farmers to create a more professional operation.
Working with farmers for long-term partnerships (5+ years).
Working together to create a higher quality and productivity of cocoa.

(You can learn all about their mission here: tonyschocolonely.com/int/en/our-story/our-mission)

Upon receiving the Stop Slavery Ward, Henk Jan Beltman, Chief Chocolate Officer at Tony’s Chocolonely, said this:

“The vision of Tony’s Chocolonely is 100% slave-free chocolate. Not just our chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide. This is our raison d’être. We believe that all companies carry a responsibility to make the world nicer. We are over the moon to receive the prestigious Stop Slavery Award. It is an important nod to our roadmap towards change and a confirmation that we are on the right track to achieve our mission. Let’s make impact together.”

Read more about why they received the Stop Slavery Award, and what you can do! https://tonyschocolonely.com/int/en/our-story/news/stop-slavery-award-2022