Child Slavery in Ivory Coast's Cocoa Industry

Categories: Chocolate

1. The systemic ethical issue raised by this case begins with the economic state of the Ivory Coast. The prices of cocoa beans have decreased quite significantly leading the farmers to cut down their labor costs. In doing so, the farmers have been left with no choice but to turn to child slavery in order to make a living and profit out of their farms. Also, in the legal aspect, child slavery in the Ivory Coast is illegal; however, they do not enforce that law whatsoever, ultimately leading to systemic ethical issues.

The corporate ethical issues raised by this case is the fact that all the corporate companies that buy the chocolate from the Ivory Coast are fully aware of the issue about child slavery and that they signed an agreement to not participate in any child slavery manufacturing, yet they still continue to purchase their chocolate with the same manufacturers that participate in child slavery. The individual ethical issues raised by this case are the farmers themselves that force children to work on their farms just so they can cut their labor costs and make more money for themselves.

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Also the traffickers that go out and steal the young children are at fault too. In addition to the farmers and traffickers, the presidents of the chocolate companies are also at fault since they seem to ignore all the allegations about their companies participating in child slavery in one form or another. 4. This incident shows being ethical is not enough for businesspeople to follow the law.

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The companies claim to be ethical and against child slavery yet they still support the complete opposite just because it is not the law.

In my opinion a company like Hershey should be held accountable for their supply chain because they have the power to change unethical behavior. For instance if Hershey actually cared about the child slavery issue and wanted to do something about it and change the way the farms operate then they can join forces with their fellow chocolate companies and demand that child slavery be stopped on the farms or they will no longer purchase their chocolate from there. The Ivory Coast cocoa industry would be devastated in such a thing was to occur thus leading to no more child slavery.

Updated: Nov 30, 2023
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Child Slavery in Ivory Coast's Cocoa Industry. (2017, Mar 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/dark-side-of-chocolate-essay

Child Slavery in Ivory Coast's Cocoa Industry essay
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