This Candy Company Is Making Sure Its Chocolate Is “100% Slave-Free”

The unsweet truth about the chocolate industry is that it relies heavily on child labor. More than 2 million children are forced to work in dangerous conditions on cocoa plantations in West Africa, according to a recent Tulane University report. More than 60% of the world’s cocoa supply comes from that region, farmed by about 2.5 million farmers toiling in countries like Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In some cases, small farmers enlist their own children as free labor to make up the shortfall. In others, children and adults are directly trafficked and enslaved by growers, a fate that by some estimates affects 90,000 people in those two places.

The problem is that while many chocolate makers may say they only want to buy from cocoa farms that use good labor practices, because the companies aren’t buying directly from farmers, there’s a middleman, which leaves the circumstances under which some beans were harvested obscured.

The other tricky part is that paying a little more for beans in the communities that need it isn’t the same thing as investing strategically in how to help those farmers. So it doesn’t necessarily encourage others to join in or fix their own cocoa farms. (Within the U.S. both Fairtrade America, an extension of Fairtrade International, and Fair Trade USA offer formal certification processes with different product seals. Only 3% of the cocoa industry by volume have adopted such social or environmental auditing.)

To meet that promise, company leader Henk Jan Beltman, who insists on being called “Chief Chocolate Officer,” had to rethink nearly everything about how traditional supply and production works. Rather than contract with international traders, the company deals directly with independent in-country farming cooperatives, which sometimes receive NGO support. All participants not only share practices to grow better crops, but agree to be monitored, ensuring instances of child labor are spotted and addressed.

To thrive, the company will have to grow the concept. The company contracted with roughly 2,800 farmers from five cooperatives in 2016—three in the Ivory Coast, and two in Ghana—to secure over 2,000 metric tons of beans, according to its annual report. Beltman says Tony’s, which is a certified B Corporation, clears north of $50 million in revenue and makes up 20% of the market in Holland.

On the production side, the co-ops deliver their harvests to one central trader, CocoaSource, which transports them in bulk to one of the industry’s largest chocolate makers, Barry Callebaut, in Belgium. Barry Callebaut processes the chocolate in a dedicated part of the facility to ensure nothing gets mixed up, and then sends it to two dedicated pouring and molding operations—the company’s contracted chocolatiers—to shape and package the product.

“It’s the lonely battle of Tony to change the chocolate industry from the inside out,” say Beltman, a former Heineken marketing executive, who became a majority owner in late 2011. At the time, the brand was more of a niche Amsterdam-based product, in part because the logistics of making ethical chocolate really are quite difficult.

On the sales side, the company contributes 1% of each purchase to a corporate foundation focused on improving childhood education and community awareness about the harms of slavery in the countries where it works. Tony’s is also a part of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an industry group consisting of most major manufacturers that was founded in 2002 to encourage more child protections. The organization does its own awareness and lobbying, although because suggested production changes could affect bean price, not every member may be eager to adopt it.

Throughout the company’s rise, Beltman has been extremely open about what’s working, and how he plans to grow. “We want to show them that if it works for us and it can work for you,” he says about encouraging others in the chocolate business to be more proactive. “If you do it right, there’s a real dignity in the product that you make.”