Why 1.5 Million Children Still Work in Cocoa

In 2001, the world's largest chocolate companies signed a voluntary agreement to end the worst forms of child labour in their cocoa supply chains. The deadline was 2005. They missed it, set another, and missed that one too. Twenty-five years later, research from NORC at the University of Chicago counts roughly 1.56 million children engaged in child labour in cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Here's the part that explains why nothing changed. The price paid to cocoa farmers in both countries is fixed by the state, months before the harvest. When cocoa futures broke records and chocolate got more expensive in shops, farmers were locked into old prices and captured none of it. When world prices fell back, their fixed price was cut anyway. On 1 September 2026, Ivory Coast held its farmgate price at 1,200 CFA francs per kilogram — roughly 57% below what farmers were promised at the start of the previous main crop. At that price, a smallholding cannot pay adult wages for harvest labour. The available labour is the household. This video follows one kilogram of cocoa from a farm in West Africa to a shelf in Europe, and looks at the three responses to the problem: the industry's twenty-five years of voluntary commitments, Tony's Chocolonely, and MrBeast's Feastables. 00:00 The promise 01:30 Where chocolate actually comes from 03:00 The fixed price 05:00 Why the price produces child labour 06:30 Twenty-five years of the industry's answer 08:00 Tony's Chocolonely and the honest number 10:00 MrBeast, Feastables, and the fight Child labour in cocoa is broad and includes hazardous work by children on family farms. It is not the same as forced labour or trafficking, which are narrower and separate categories, and this video keeps them distinct. Nothing here alleges that any named company is currently breaking any law. Sou