People around the world love chocolate. In 2025, the chocolate market was worth $113 billion. Experts expect the market to reach $152 billion by 2031. Will that growth happen at the expense of farmers who aren’t paid enough, children forced to work on cocoa plantations, and natural forests?
Be Slavery Free’s 2026 Chocolate Scorecard assessed 49 of the largest chocolate companies and retailers in the world, or about nine in every 10 cocoa beans. More than a third (37 percent) of cocoa farmers confirmed they do not earn a living income.
A joint report by the Ghana Cocoa Board and the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa surveyed 600 farming households on their 2022/2023 harvest and found that 91 percent reported they earn an average annual income below the adjusted Living Income Benchmark.
Cocoa comes from beans grown on cacao trees, which are native to tropical South American regions. Only a few regions in the world can support large-scale cultivation. West Africa produces about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, and Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana together account for roughly 60 percent of global supply.
Cocoa prices fluctuate, so when prices are low, farmers fall into deeper poverty. They have little to no bargaining power. Many cannot even arrange transportation for their beans, leaving them with limited marketing options. Most cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are small. Studies by Südwind and the Royal Tropical Institute of the Netherlands found that in Ghana, around 800,000 cocoa farmers own two to four hectares of land.
The Impact of Global Pricing on Local Communities
Child labor occurs widely on cocoa farms, driven by poverty caused by farmers not being paid a living income. The International Labor Organization defines child labor as work that is “mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children” and that “interferes with their schooling.”
“When it’s hazardous or gets in the way of school, it becomes child labor,” Katie Bird, Communications Director for the International Cocoa Initiative, told Global Warming Is Real.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 60 percent of the global cocoa supply is from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, and over 1.5 million children work on cocoa farms in both countries. More than 40 percent of the children perform hazardous work. The Department of Labor has listed cocoa beans from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana on its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor since 2009.
Children working in cocoa production are physically vulnerable and can develop back or muscle pain, burns, and itchy skin or scratches. Children may use machetes to harvest cocoa and carry heavy pods. They are also exposed to pesticides. Neonicotinoids and pyrethroids are the most commonly used pesticide classes on cocoa farms. Both are linked to health problems in children.
Quality education can keep children from working on their families’ cocoa farms. However, when it isn’t available, children usually end up performing work unsuitable for their young bodies. “The lack of access to quality education leaves families with fewer options; the children often end up staying at home and working on farms,” Bird said.
Researchers found that most of the farmers who participated in a study exhibited “improper pesticide storage, application, and disposal practices.” Their lack of knowledge increases the risk of pesticide exposure for children working on their farms. ICI is spreading awareness about the dangers of pesticides to children and pregnant women. One way the organization spreads awareness is to “work to make the whole community aware,” according to Bird.
In 2025, 82 percent of large companies reported their child labor data to Be Slavery Free, up from 45 percent in 2023. This year, 94 percent of large companies and 70 percent of retailers have systems in place to address it. Across the 2026 Scorecard, 62 percent of cocoa is traceable back to the farmer group, about ten percentage points higher than last year.
The Environmental By-Products of Cocoa Farming
Deforestation is also a by-product of cocoa production. Cocoa is generally grown as a monocrop, meaning it is the sole crop for farmers. Rainforests are cut down to make way for cocoa trees. The same dynamic has driven rainforest loss for palm oil. Most cocoa farmers make less than a dollar a day, which puts them in poverty and unable to afford upgrades that would make their farms more sustainable.
In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, cocoa production drives agricultural deforestation. Côte d’Ivoire lost 380,000 hectares of humid primary forest from 2002 to 2025, a 29 percent decrease. During the same time frame, the country lost 4.2 million hectares of tree cover, or 28 percent of the 2000 tree cover area. The loss of tree cover released 2.3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Deforestation releases the carbon dioxide forests have stored. From 2003 to 2017, 1.65 million hectares of tropical moist forest in Côte d’Ivoire were cleared and turned into cocoa plantations. They accounted for 45 percent of tropical moist forest loss. The country’s annual deforestation rate is 110,000 hectares, nearly the size of New York City. In 2025 alone, Côte d’Ivoire lost 180,000 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 92 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
What are chocolate companies doing about deforestation? According to the Chocolate Scorecard, not much. Only eight of the 49 participating companies could already pass the EU’s Deforestation Regulation, whose first audit cycle begins on December 30, 2026.
A Solution for Deforestation and Climate Change Impacts
Beyond deforestation, cocoa farmers also face climate change impacts. Higher temperatures in West Africa caused by climate change will reduce soil and plant moisture, and rainfall is unlikely to increase enough to offset the loss. An analysis by Climate Central found that climate change is already causing excessive heat in West Africa. Climate change has added 40 days a year with temperatures above 90 degrees F in the cocoa-producing regions of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Less rainfall means less cocoa produced.
However, agroforestry is one solution. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization defines it as “land management systems where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately integrated with agricultural crops…in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.” In short, it is combining cocoa with other trees. That makes it a different proposition from standalone tree planting, which does not always deliver the forest recovery it promises.
Researchers from the University of Queensland found that carbon emissions from the chocolate industry could be reduced with more shade trees over farms. The analysis found that shade tree cover in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana is low, at around 13 percent, as much of it has been lost to deforestation. Cocoa can be grown without significant yield losses under 30 to 50 percent shade. Increasing shade tree cover to at least 30 percent would sequester up to 10.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year over the coming decades.
“There’s a lot of movement toward agroforestry,” Bird said. She added that shade trees could bring revenue and protect against cocoa tree diseases. Relying only on cocoa makes farmers vulnerable and stuck in poverty.
Researchers analyzed agroforestry adoption among smallholder cocoa farmers near Taï National Park (TNP) in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire. A total of 323 cocoa farmers filled out a questionnaire about their practices and perceptions. They found that 86 percent use agroforestry practices. Factors influencing agroforestry adoption include gender, length of residency, the number of cultivated cash crops, and the incidence of black pod attacks.
Improving the Lives of Cocoa Farmers & Their Families
How can farmers and their families improve their lives? One way is through cooperatives, which give farmers more control, but only 20 to 30 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s farmers are in a cooperative, and they are often forced to sell at lower prices.
Increasing the number of fair trade farmers and cooperatives would increase premiums for cocoa farmers. Impact Institute surveyed 102 cocoa farming households in Côte d’Ivoire and found they earn, on average, 45 percent of the living income benchmark. The study also found that premium payments by value chain partners increase household income by 31 percent.
Closing the gap would require a 2.5 percent rise in the price of a chocolate bar, a matter of single-digit cents.
It would only be a half-percentage-point decrease in net margin if the biggest chocolate companies absorbed the cost. The six biggest chocolate brands make more than $226 billion combined, while the combined GDP of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the two leading cocoa producers, is about $155 billion.
Certification is another way to put more money in the hands of farmers, and is what separates ethical chocolate from the rest on the shelf. Through its certification program, the Rainforest Alliance works with nearly one million cocoa farmers, mainly in West Africa, to help them raise their income and prevent deforestation and child labor. Climate resilience is a part of the certification program. Resilience-building practices include planting shade trees, nurturing ground cover plants, planting on hills or natural terraces to prevent soil erosion, and weeding by hand to reduce pesticide use.
Fairtrade certification is another way to help cocoa farmers earn more. “Fairtrade supports cocoa farmers and workers through our unique pricing model, sets rigorous standards across the supply chain, and fosters strong producer communities through local and regional networks,” Amanda Archila, Executive Director, Fairtrade America, told Global Warming Is Real.
Archila believes “a better system and a fairer future are possible.” Fairtrade certification helps achieve that by giving farmers a higher price for the cocoa they grow.
In December 2025, Fairtrade announced updated minimum prices and premiums for cocoa after a year of challenges, including climate change, volatile markets, and rising costs. The new Fairtrade minimum price for conventional cocoa, which takes effect on October 1, 2026, is $3,500 per metric ton in Ghana and €3,200 in Côte d’Ivoire, while the Fairtrade premium is $275 per metric ton, or €250 in Côte d’Ivoire. That extra income from the premium helps prevent child labor and deforestation.
What You Can Do: Buy Ethical Chocolate
Consumers have a role in improving the lives of cocoa farmers and their families. That role is simple: Buy ethical chocolate, which in practice means looking for a certification label. Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade Certification are two organizations with certification programs. Rainforest Alliance includes a list of companies with certified chocolate, as does Fairtrade.
Ghirardelli, a San Francisco-based chocolate company owned by Lindt & Sprüngli, sources all its cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified sources. The parent company has its own farming program to improve practices on cocoa farms.
The chocolate market is on track to add nearly $40 billion in value by 2031. Whether any of that growth reaches the farmers who grow the beans is a choice the industry is making, not a market accident. Closing the living income gap costs a few cents on a bar, and the tools to keep forests standing already exist in the shade trees, cooperatives, and certification programs spreading across West Africa. What is missing is the will to pay for them, and every bar of ethical chocolate in a shopping cart is a small argument for finding it.
