“U.S. westerners have the luxury to enjoy chocolate. But in the Ivory Coast cocoa farmers sadly don’t have this luxury.”
The Ivory Coast is the world's largest exporter of the cocoa bean, the main ingredient in chocolate. But the impoverished farmers who harvest the beans generally never see and cannot afford to buy the finished product — your chunk of chocolate.
Thierry Gouegnon / Reuters
The Netherlands' Metropolis TV traveled to one cocoa farm in the Ivory Coast earlier this year to speak to the farmers about the problem.
The chocolate industry is worth an estimated $110 billion dollars a year, CNN reported. Wealthy areas of North America and Europe consume most of the world's chocolate, while most cocoa beans are grown in West Africa.
The average cocoa farmer lives on less than the equivalent of $2 a day, while under 5% of the price of the average chocolate makes its way back to the farmers, according to Oxfam.
Metropolis TV gave some of the farmers chocolate to hold and taste for the first time. Their responses?
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