Festival Keynote - Nicola Matthews

‘You might not be aware of any issues in the chocolate industry.’

I am going to talk to you about the story of an unusual chocolate bar - a chocolate bar on a mission to make all chocolate 100% slave free, not just our chocolate but all chocolate worldwide. We classify ourselves as an impact company that makes chocolate, not a chocolate company that makes impact. We make every single decision with the lives of cocoa farmers in mind.

You might not be aware of any issues in the chocolate industry. In West Africa, including Ghana and the Ivory Coast, there are two and a half million cocoa farmers. Then, we have billions of chocolate lovers, predominantly in the Western world. Between the two there are seven big chocolate companies who control all of the world’s chocolate production as a mixture of liquid chocolate producers and brand owners. These are all profit making companies, it’s in their interest to pay as little as possible for cocoa, and so the price paid to cocoa farmers in humanely low.

Both Ghana and the Ivory Coast are on the equator, with perfect conditions for cocoa production - 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from these two countries. Any big chocolate brand you can name will buy their cocoa from these nations’ 2.5 million farmers and their families working on smallholder farms, and also 1.6 million children working illegally carrying out hazardous work such as carrying heavy sacks of cocoa using pesticides. There are also at least 30,000 instances of modern slavery, where kids are trafficked from neighbouring countries like Mali and Burkina Faso with the promise of work on cocoa farms and the chance to send money back to their families, but they are trafficked.

Our story started with a team of journalists in Amsterdam who made a TV show that delved into the food industry. It was a kind of comedy, breaking the myths of the sustainability claims companies would make on wrappers. The journalists tried to speak to Nestlé and other large chocolate manufacturers but couldn’t get the CEOs or anybody from the companies to speak honesty about the problems. So, they flew to Ghana and spoke to two former cocoa farm child slaves and recorded their testimonials.

Their activist-journalism made some noise and drew attention to an issue that most people had no idea about, but it didn’t do enough. Eventually, they decided to create something that might have more impact than a piece in a newspaper - they wanted to show the world that it was possible to make chocolate 100% slave free and in 2005 began making what they believed to be the world’s first slave free chocolate bar. They created 5000 Fairtrade chocolate bars, packaged in bright red packaging to really stand out. Tony’s Chocolonely was born and they sold out in two hours at Amsterdam train stations. Tony is the international name of the Dutch journalist, Teun, and lonely comes from his lonely battle against inequality in the chocolate industry.

It was never intended to become a large company, but just make noise around the issues. But it became so popular they continued. Our mission - and our pack design - has not changed changed in those 17 years, and it all comes down to five things. We call these our five sourcing principles, and they are our recipe for eradicating illegal labour from supply chains.

Trace those beans: Full traceability of our supply chain. We know where every single bean and every single bar comes from, and also the human beings involved because knowing the faces of those business people you work with has a huge impact on how you treat them.

Pay a higher price: We pay a higher price than the governmentset minimum price for cocoa to help eradicate poverty. We add a Fairtrade premium on top, but that still isn’t enough for a living income, so we bridge the gap with the Tony’s premium. As a result, we are currently paying 77% to 82% more than the standardised price which large chocolate makers pay.

Support strong farmers: We work with farmer cooperatives to support them in becoming stronger, more professional businesses.

Go for the long term: We engage in 5 year deals with farmers, so they know they have a minimum amount of sales, can plan ahead, and invest for the future based on a guaranteed income.

Focus on quality and productivity: We are helping suppliers with the impacts of climate change, which has a massive impact on cocoa production. Our farmers are on the equator and seeing huge swings in terms of weather events which impact their crops. They are solely reliant on their cocoa, so we are help them to protect their farms and improve their crop quality and yield.

How do we get the rest of the world to adopt our sourcing principles? Firstly, we create awareness and tell everybody about problems in the industry, and that we have a plan to help fix it. Secondly, we lead by example by proving it is doable to build a sustainable, delicious, and market leading chocolate without exploiting cocoa farmers at the start of the supply chain - and still make a profit. Thirdly, we hope to inspire people to buy differently and shout our story, spreading the issue through word of mouth.

We need to inspire governments to change legislation, to inspire retailers to source currently and, ultimately, we need to put so much pressure on these large chocolate companies so that they have to adopt our sourcing principles - because they really hold the key to changing the entire industry. So, finally, we’ve created something called Tony’s Open Chain, our industry-leading initiative inviting other companies who buy cocoa to adopt our sourcing principles.

The first ally to join Tony’s Open Chain, adopting our sourcing principles, was Albert Heijn - the Netherlands’ version of Tesco. They are now making all their ownlabel chocolate according to our sourcing principles. Then we had JOKOLADE and vly, two German chocolate brands. Aldi has joined Europe wide and created the Choco Changer label, and finally the biggest ally to recently join is Ben and Jerry’s.

In our last trading year, 2020-21, Tony’s Chocolonely sourced 8,617 tonnes, and then our mission allies was nearly 4000 tonnes more on top - and that means hundreds more farmers and their families earning a living income, getting out of poverty, and not having to use child labour on their farms.

We know where every single bean and every single bar comes from, & also the human beings involved because...knowing the faces of those business people you work with has a huge impact on how you treat them.

Nicola Matthews, UK & Ireland Head of Marketing at Tony’s Chocolonely

Nicola, aka The Countess of Cocoa, is UK & Ireland Head of Marketing at Tony’s Chocolonely, the chocolate makers on a serious mission to end slavery in the chocolate industry. Nicola joined the team to launch Tony’s in the UK in 2019, bringing 8 years of commercial, marketing, and innovation experience from Diageo and start-up CocoPro to the role.