By Kwon Mee-yoo
When someone receives a box of chocolates as a Valentine’s Day gift, the last thing to come to mind would be the image of African children and those from other countries who are forced to harvest cacao beans.
That is changing as people become more aware and are ready to check “Fair Trade” labels before selecting their gifts. Fair Trade is a consumer awareness campaign started in the United States with the goal of paying a fair price to small-scale manufacturers and help ease child labor exploitation in underdeveloped countries.
Kim Min-ji, a 29-year-old office worker, bought boxes of Fair Trade chocolate for Valentine's Day.
"The simple package clearly indicates where the cocoa beans used in the chocolate come from and how people are paid properly. Though not fancy in shape or packaging, Fair Trade chocolate tastes sweeter to me, because it's free from child exploitation," Kim said. "I think giving Fair Trade chocolate is a good way not only to express love but also shop ethically."
The success of the Fair Trade brand could depend on how it fares on Valentine’s Day.
February is the biggest month for chocolate manufacturers in Korea.
The Korean chocolate market is estimated to be worth 400 billion won in annual sales and about half of those are generated in February.
Lee Mi-young, president of Fair Trade Korea, said children aged from 9 to 12 work 12 hours a day on West African cocoa farms.
"About 70 percent of cocoa beans are produced in West Africa, but the farmers only pay children a daily wage of 50 cents as they supply cocoa beans to corporate giants," Lee said. “To improve labor conditions on cocoa farms, it is important for consumers to choose Fair Trade products to guarantee the proper cost of production to cocoa plantation farmers.”
Shops are producing their own Fair Trade chocolate or importing it from Switzerland or Germany.
Beautiful Coffee, a fair trade organization under Beautiful Store, is selling two kinds of "Honest Chocolate," with different cacao contents. A Fair Trade 40-gram bar made from cocoa beans from Peru is priced at 2,000 won.
Fair Trade Korea offers three kinds of Equal Exchange organic and fairly traded chocolates _ dark chocolate, milk chocolate and chocolate with espresso beans. Divine Chocolate, another brand sold at Fair Trade Korea, uses cocoa beans provided by Kuapa KoKoo, a cocoa farmers' cooperative in Ghana. Another Fair Trade shop Ullim imports Claro organic chocolate from Switzerland.