I work for a company that owns it's own plantation and we, as staff members, are educated on the buying system we use in comparison to the system that other companies use. The amount of money that a company can make from the production of chocolate is disgufaisting in comparison to what the farmer makes.
First of all, imagine your chocolate bar, the one you pay about 60p for. There is little to no cocoa in that bar of chocolate. Check the ingredients of your generic store brand chocolate next time you are in a store - it's about 27% cocoa solids max for dark chocolate. That means that the other 73% of that stuff is sugar, shellac and other random shit.
Second of all, the way most companies treat cocoa farmers is disgusting. The way some companies work is that they tell a farmer they want so many tonnes of cocoa. The farmer then grows and harvests said cocoa and presents that amount to the buyers. The thing is cocoa is tricky - only so many pods have decent beans in them. So the company will offer a number to the farmer that is ridiculously low, saying that they will only take about half the cocoa they have requested, leaving the farmers in panic. Then the companies will "conveniently" take the cocoa from a farmer and "dispose" of it without paying for those beans and use them anyway. So that 60p bar of chocolate you eat? Only between 3 to 10p of that actually goes to the farmer depending on the company.
And I know we often think fairtrade is better - but remember the fairtrade system is a middle man - and they need paid too. So really, if you want to be fairer to the farmers (at least cocoa farmers) check out a companies ethics about buying cocoa. Look for companies that employ an ethics program that cuts out that middle man.
Granted there are great things about fairtrade, but fairtrade isn't always better.
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