Entry: Bill Guyton
Today, a global coalition of the chocolate and cocoa industry issued a joint statement with the offices of US Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel reporting on efforts laid out under a Cocoa Protocol signed in 2001 to address the worst forms of child labor and forced adult labor in the West African cocoa sector. The statement comes as a number of efforts are improving conditions in West African cocoa farming communities. By July 1, 2008 both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa producers, will have a certification system in place across an area that produces at least 50 percent of their cocoa. In both countries the data collection element of the certification system has been completed and reports detailing the preliminary results of these surveys by the respective countries are expected to be released by July 1st.