Galleries - Bitter Chocolate
Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa, the raw ingredient for chocolate, and is responsible for about 36 percent of global exports. The cocoa trade of Ivory Coast is mired in exploitation - of children - war, and corrupt profits by Ivorian officials and western big chocolate business. It is estimated that a quarter of a million children work in hazardous conditions on Ivorian cocoa farms, in spite of a pledge by the world's biggest chocolate companies more than seven years ago to abolish forced child labor from their supply chain. [20 photos]
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| 9 year old Jean Baptiste doesn'tt attend school. Work begins at 8 am and involves cutting cocoa fruit off the trees with a machete and removing the beans. The family has no other viable source of income. Jean Baptiste has no idea what happens to the cocoa beans. Here he is taking a short rest from the strenuous work.
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| Two children returning to Meagui after working on a cocoa plantation. Richard (left) carrying a pesticide tank on his back. His whole body is covered with a skin disease (probably Psoriasis). The boys do not attend school.
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| Ivory Coast, near Sinikosson. Harvesting, hands full of cocoa beans.
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| 11 year old Ibra, using a machete tied to a stick to harvest cocoa pods from a tree on father's cocoa plantation on outskirts of village of Sinikosson. He does not attend school; work begins at 8 am. He has no idea what happens to the cocoa beans.
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| A boy from Burkina Faso spends hours cracking open ripe cocoa pods with a machete before removing the beans and collecting them in a bowl. He does not attend school; work begins at 8 am. He has no idea what happens to the cocoa beans.
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| 9 year old Jean Baptiste carrying sacks of cocoa pods (approximately 30 kg) on plantation of his father on outskirts of the village of Sinikosson. He doesn't attend school; work begins at 8 am and involves cutting cocoa fruit off the trees with a machete and removing the beans. The family has no other viable source of income. Jean Baptiste has no idea what happens to the beans.
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| 9 year old Jean Baptiste carrying sacks of cocoa pods (approximately 30 kg) on plantation of his father on outskirts of the village of Sinikosson. He doesn't go to school; work begins at 8 am and involves cutting cocoa fruit off the trees with a machete and removing the beans. The family has no other viable source of income. Jean Baptiste has no idea what happens to the beans he harvests.
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| This woman is from Burkina Faso. A member of her community was accused of the murder of a man from a village in Ivory Coast, and as a result she had to leave her cocoa plantation where she had worked for decades. Now she has been able to return, but lives in fear of being killed in revenge by one of the villagers.
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| Cocoa plantaion workers from Burkina Faso. Someone from their community was accused of the murder of a man from a village in Ivory Coast, and as a result they had to leave her cocoa plantation that they had run for decades. Now they have been able to return, but live in fear of being killed in revenge by one of the villagers. Here the workers are standing in a cocoa plantation that was apparently destroyed by neighboring Ivorians.
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| Noel Kaboura from Meagui is a buyer of cocoa beans from plantations. Here he is waiting at a plantation for his colleague Bougma, 24, to take sacks of beans back to Meagui (approx. 45 km away, approx. 4 hours drive).
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| Noel Kaboura from Meagui is a buyer of cocoa beans from plantations. Here he is complaining about working conditions and low pay.
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| After prayer marking the end of Ramadan, inhabitants from surrounding villages travel free on the back of the truck of cocoa bean buyer Noel Kaboura. These villagers originally come from Burkina Faso and are Muslim.
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| Cocoa beans are being taken to Meagui. The poor infrastructure pushes down the price of the beans grown on the plantations which are difficult to reach.
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| The sacks of cocoa beans will be taken to the port city of San Pedro for export.
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| The Lebanese factory owner Ali Lakiss is planning to build the first Ivorian cocoa butter factory. Lakiss used to be a buyer of cocoa beans.
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| The company's Lebanese director Ali Lakiss is here in his warehouse that is still in the process of being built. He plans to open the first cocoa butter factory in Ivory Coast. Lakiss used to work as a buyer of cocoa beans.
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| Colombie is a quarter in the Bado slum drug trade and prostitution thrive here. Many people came to San Pedro to seek work in the cocoa companies but ended up in the slum.
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| Cargill avoids all contact with the press and is known for its business policies that do not respect human welfare.
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| This slum in San Pedro is called Bado. Many people came to San Pedro in the hope of earning money in the cocoa companies of the port city.
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