The annual Chocolate Scorecard study surveyed 43 companies that buy more than 90 per cent of the world’s cocoa and chocolate products. These include Nestle, Ferrero, Hershey, Mars Wrigley, Starbucks, and some innovative smaller companies.

The Fourth Edition Scorecard is coordinated by Be Slavery Free, with universities, consultants and civil society groups engaging in transforming the chocolate industry. It includes 29 retailers that produce their own private-label chocolate.

The 43 companies were rated on the six most pressing sustainability issues facing the chocolate industry: traceability and transparency; living income policies; child labour; deforestation and climate; agroforestry; and agrichemical management.

Good Eggs

The “Good Egg” awards were given to Original Beans, available online and at specialist chocolate shops, and Tony’s Chocolonely, available at some Coles and Woolworth’s stores.

Original Beans was praised for its “Regenerative approach to growing and making chocolate” while Tony’s Chocolonely was recognised for “Seeking to bring structural change to the entire cocoa sector through collaboration.”

The Original Beans’ team works to “regenerate what they consume”, which means working to preserve cacao beans and 100 per cent of their environment.

Tony’s Chocolonely’s mission statement is to make all chocolate 100 per cent slave-free. Its website is dedicated to educating its consumers on the unfair distribution of the chocolate supply chain, modern slavery in the industry and how the company is working to improve the areas in which slavery is the worst in the chocolate industry.

This year, Halba (also available through chocolate shops) has joined the growing list of companies “developing their own programs and partnerships to address the issues”.

If you’re looking for an easy supermarket option, Aldi chocolate also scored a Good Egg rating.

Broken Eggs

This year the number of companies that chose not to participate in the survey and thus were awarded “Broken Eggs” grew to five. These include big companies Friesland Campina, General Mills, Kruger Group, Mondelez Int. and Unilever.

Rotten Eggs

The Rotten Egg Award goes to General Mills and Walmart for their “lack of public policies and commitment to their cocoa procurement”. The report noted that the companies’ lack of transparency in reporting and implementing sustainable policies makes it difficult for customers and investors to hold them accountable.

However, Storck and Starbucks chose to participate in the survey this year after abstaining the previous year. After Storck received the “Rotten Award in 2021 and 2022 for “lack of transparency and being unreasonable”, the company made limited efforts to improve transparency and living income. Starbucks is sitting in the middle of the Scorecard with “room for improvement” in all categories.

Fuzz Kitto of Be Slavery Free, the Australia-based charity which coordinated The Chocolate Scorecard, holds a very strong belief in the responsibility of the companies that are involved in the process.

“If they are making progress on increasing the sustainability of their chocolate supply chains, then we and their customers and investors would like to hear about it,” says Kitto.

The Chocolate Scorecard focuses on the production and supply chains that start in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are the two largest cocoa-growing countries, accounting for over 60 per cent of global cocoa production, followed by Ecuador with 7 per cent. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are also the areas where slavery is the worst within the cacao industry with 1.56 million children working in illegal circumstances and 30,000 victims of modern slavery.

“We’re often asked what chocolate is the most ethical to eat, so we always set out to name and fame rather than just name and shame. That way consumers get to see what better looks like,” says Kitto.

With chocolate companies working each year to take more accountability for their part in one of the most exploitative industries in the world, one can only say, “How Egg-citing!”

BeSlaveryFree’s Ethical Scorecard: Brands and Suppliers

This is a small snapshot of the wealth of information for shoppers found in The Chocolate Scorecard. Download the full scorecard at beslaveryfree.com/chocolate.

Sofia Walia is one of Bible Society Australia’s 2023 interns. Sofia is studying Psychology and Cognitive Brain Sciences at Macquarie University and attends church in Manly.