What Is the True Cost of a Chocolate Bar ?
I have a question for all of us, consumers, businesses, policymakers: What is the real cost of a chocolate bar?
Is it just what we pay at checkout? Or does it also include degraded forests, exhausted soils, children out of school, or farmers who can’t afford medicine?
Would we be willing to do things differently if we understood the true cost?
Signs of Hope
Some companies are already leading the way. Tony’s Chocolonely, for example, partners directly with eight cocoa cooperatives in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and sources 100% traceable beans. Its ‘Tony’s Open Chain’ platform enables other chocolate brands to adopt the same approach. In 2022, Tony’s paid over €8 million in additional premiums. In 2023/24, it paid 44% above the government price in Côte d’Ivoire and 18% above in Ghana, benefiting over 20,000 farmers through traceable, deforestation-free sourcing, an approach that helped cut child labour rates among long-term partners to as low as 3.9%.
In Côte d’Ivoire, Earthworm Foundation’s work in the Cavally landscape shows what’s possible when collaboration moves beyond commitments. Through agroforestry training, land-use planning, and access to finance, over 795 farmers have boosted yields without clearing forests. Community savings groups now serve 1,200 people, many of whom are women, while a child labour monitoring system reaches 3,500 households. Satellite and local patrols protect over 3,300 hectares of regenerating forest, now safeguarded under its 2023 Natural Reserve status.
These aren’t perfect models but they show what’s possible when companies, communities, and governments work together.
A Turning Point
Chocolate doesn’t have to disappear. But keeping it on our shelves means investing in the people and places who make it possible.
We stand at a crossroads. We can continue down the path of short-term profits and long-term loss or choose a new path. One rooted in regeneration, partnership, and shared responsibility.
The future of chocolate depends on the choices we make today.
Let’s make them wisely.