Tony's Chocolonely - it's not right, but I respect your transparency

Christmas just passed, I decided that I wanted a number of my gifts to friends and family to be as sustainable as possible. Instead of buying gifts I knew wasn't quality and wouldn't last long, I scoured the internet for "sustainable Christmas gifts", that would be thoughtful, and better for the planet. After a short internal debate, I decided the perfect combo would be various items from Last Object , paired with the delicious, good quality, "slave labour free" chocolate from Tony's Chocolonely's . My friends and family (and myself) loved them.

"Alone we make slave free chocolate. Together we make all chocolate 100% slave free. So we ask you to join in"

However, recently, it has come to light that between 2020 and April 2021, they discovered 1701 issues of child labour in their supply chain, which is a nearly 4.4 times what they discovered in the previous year.

Tony's Chocolonely missions is the first thing you see when you go onto their website. They educate their consumers. They want them to be part of the solution. They explain clearly what the problem is, why slave labour exists, and how they are looking to prevent it. Their website is very engaging, and to anyone who purchases their chocolate ,will most likely walk away feeling that they have done their bit for the world that day. I certainly did.

I actually have a huge amount of respect for Tony's Chocoloney. Being transparent with their findings can't have been an easy decision to make. Not many businesses would come out and share this information, due to the potential detrimental effect on their reputation, sales and more. What does concern me, and what I believe is wrong, is their confusing messaging. Most people, I'm sure, would believe that if Tony Chocoloney's advertising, celebrity endorsements, and website, all strongly state that there is no modern slavery in their supply chain, that this would include child labour.

The following extract was taken from their Fair Report:

Would I have bought multiple bars of chocolate for family and friends, knowing that child labour had been used within their supply chain to create those bars. Maybe not

Would I have spread the word about how great I thought Tony's Chocoloney chocolate is had I been aware of the full facts. Probably not.

Will I stop buying their chocolate forever? No, and here is why...

Tony's Chocoloney, despite the issues discovered, are a leader in the chocolate sustainability world. They deliberately choose to work in Ghana and The Ivory Coast, as this is the where the worst problems are, and where they will be able to make the greatest positive impact.

"Supply chain risk grows, as the supply chain spans out"

The popularity of their chocolate has increased hugely in just a couple of years, and managing a rapidly growing supply chain is difficult. It isn't good that they found 1701 issues of child labour cases, but what is positive, is that they are assessing their suppliers, finding these issues and can look to work with the communities where this is happening to help prevent them from happening in the future.

The supply of tea, coffee, bananas, plus many more all face the same Human Rights risks. I guarantee that most of them aren't, and won't be, as transparent.

There's clearly work to do, which won't be resolved over night, and because of this, I still have faith in them that they will continue to do their upmost to prevent this happening. They are making change, the right kind of change, that as consumers we should be looking for.