How Chocolate is Made

People have been eating chocolate as early as 1750 BC. In fact, ancient humans were so fond of chocolate they were using it as medicine and even in religious rituals! Today this delicacy is Available everywhere on the planet with companies shipping out as much as 3 million tonnes of it every year!
So how is it made?

Bitter chocolate

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(Peace be upon you)

"How's the chocolate bitter?" Don't say that my issue is not with the taste. It is always sweet to the tongue when you taste it; Chocolate, the sweetest of sweets, is bittersweet when you hear its backstory.

Chocolate is one of the most popular food products in many parts of the world. Behind the delicious chocolates that our tongues taste, there is an African country; Coat of arms. The West African country is the number one producer of cocoa, the chocolate industry. Côte d'Ivoire produces 45% of the world's cocoa.

The country's nearly six million cocoa farmers are the industry's main input supplier. However, the cocoa trade in Côte d'Ivoire is primarily characterized by systems that are extremely unfair and provide little benefit to the farmer.

In contrast, a handful of chocolate giants like Lindt, Ferrero, Mars, Nestlé and Hershey's dominate the production and marketing chain, making billions every year.

The annual world chocolate market is more than 130 billion dollars and it is unfortunate that Côte d'Ivoire, which supplies 45% of the cocoa to the world, earns no more than 4% of the annual income from this market.

The lives of its farmers are in dire poverty. According to the World Economic Forum report, up to 80% of farmers earn less than $0.78 a day.

Cocoa farmers, who get much less profit in terms of the demand for their product, cannot afford to buy the cheaper type of chocolate.

A report supported this issue and presented it as follows: "Leonade chocolate is sold for 32 dollars per kg. If I were to buy this mid-priced chocolate, a farmer in Cote d'Ivoire would ask for 45 days of his daily income."

Cocoa trade in Côte d'Ivoire is a non-liberalized market. It is completely circulated by no more than a handful of European and American companies. It is these companies that control the market from the table to the consumer's mouth.

They are the ones who believe even the selling price of the farmer. The government has very limited powers.

Although revolutionary politicians who emerged at different times started activities to avoid the exploitation of their farmers and foreign cesses, their efforts and sometimes their lives were cut short.

Here, the former president of the country, Lauren Bagbo, is raised as a demonstration. The president tried to get the cocoa marketing system out of the hands of foreign companies (Multinational corporations) which made his country a bystander. They passed a law to establish a cocoa trading system controlled by the government, and this situation is said to be one of the reasons why they were removed from power by force.

???? Cocoa producers as fuel exporters

Recently, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana have formed a new alliance with the Côte d'Ivoire to change the bitter truth and increase the benefits of their countries. The three countries rank second to fourth in cocoa production after Côte d'Ivoire. The four West African countries together market nearly 75% of the world's cocoa production.

The activities started by the countries are mainly about establishing market fairness. For some, the movement aims to relatively free the market from right-wing rulers (decolonization).

The four cocoa producing countries are interested in following the path of the oil producing countries. Just as the oil producing countries OPEC (OPEC) are planning to repeat the power they created by controlling the amount of world oil production, price stability and marketing through their alliance on cocoa.

Finally, I would like to share with you a scene from a documentary that explores the sad life of cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire.

At the end of the documentary, the journalist spends time with the farmers in their fields and homes, and before finishing the program, he extends his hand to give a gift to the farmer he is talking to.

The farmer hesitantly accepted the gift. He turned and looked at it.

Realizing that the farmer did not know what the gift was, the journalist opened the package and said, "The cocoa you grow and sell goes into the factory and finally comes out like this... it's called chocolate."

The farmer shook his head and said, "It's the first time I've seen it."

Surprised, the reporter asked the question, "Oh... have you ever tasted it?"

"I've never tasted it," said the farmer.

 The reporter opened the package and tasted the chocolate with his fingers and offered it to the farmer.

The Kotdaru farmer, who has been growing cacao since his ancestors and selling it to chocolate manufacturers, saw the sweet fruit he picked from his field as chocolate for the first time!

For the first time he tasted the foreign taste.

This story of bitter chocolate is the reality of not one but many millions of poor farmers!!

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