Chocolate: the bitter taste of guilty pleasure

In tablet, ganache, bite, chocolate is crunched, savor, shares. However. Consequently, under this familiar sweetness hides a much more bitter reality: that of a product at the ecological and social heavy cost. For example,

A growing demand …. Similarly, back forests

With an average of 6 kilos of chocolate consumed per year and per French, and global demand up 2 to 5% per year, the cocoa sector is experiencing strong growth, leading to an intensification of culture as in the image of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana which ensure almost 60% of world production. Meanwhile, But this surge in consumption has a price: faced with extreme precariousness, producers are pushed to clear new fertile land. Nevertheless, In Côte d’Ivoire for example. Similarly, forests, which once covered a large part of the territory, now represent less than 10% of the national surface. chocolate: bitter taste guilty pleasure Consequently,

A climate that also pays the high price

This productivity race has a major environmental cost. For example, Globally, deforestation would be responsible for approximately 20% of greenhouse gas emissions and this share climbs almost 25% in West Africa. However. However, these cocoa crops, planted online and devoid of vegetable diversity, are particularly sensitive to diseases and the vagaries of the climate, which can plunge the production of beans. For example, In 2023. In addition, 2024, the crops were thus dramatically affected by a succession of extreme events which plunged the production of Ivorian beans: heavy rain, brutal drought and propagation of diseases such as brown rot.

Consequently, the cocoa price has gone, carried by the drop in supply. Between January 2023. January 2025, the price of the ton of beans jumped 365%, reaching a record of 12,000 dollars per ton at the end of 2024. A chocolate: bitter taste guilty pleasure blazing that industrialists were quick to pass from consumers. In March 2025, Easter chocolates thus saw their ray price climbing 14% on average over one year.

Behind the bean, sacrificed lives

Beyond the environmental impact, it is a human crisis that is played out in plantations. Like Côte d’Ivoire. the average income of producers can be less than $ 1 per day, an extreme level of poverty pushing many families to resort to children’s work. It is estimated that more than 800,000 children work on cocoa farms, one in three children in planting areas. Admittedly. the recent increase in the price of cocoa has offered a breath of fresh air to producers, but this improvement remains insufficient to outdoors these families of precariousness and put an end to deeply rooted practices. Without structured support and ambitious policies, the vicious circle of poverty and child labor is likely to chocolate: bitter taste guilty pleasure last.

Rethink our consumption

So what to do? A track: consume better. But unlike a received idea. dark chocolate, often valued for its purity, has a higher carbon footprint than milk or white chocolate. In question: its more important cocoa content that increases the ecological assessment of the product. Thus, producing a kilo of dark chocolate generates on average 17.11 kg of co₂e, against 12.74 kg for milk chocolate, and 11.32 kg for white.

Some recommend turning to certified chocolates (organic, fair trade, etc.). But then again, vigilance: not all labels are created equal. Some lack rigor in their controls. Although organic cocoa, cultivated without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, is progress for biodiversity, it often has less yields. Consequently, some producers are tempted to clear more, a dynamic that can supply deforestation.

Beyond individual choices, political initiatives are starting to emerge. The European Union thus adopted two new regulations chocolate: bitter taste guilty pleasure in 2024: the European regulation relating to the fight against deforestation. deterioration of forests (RDUE) and the corporate Sustainability due to Directive Diligence (CS3D). These texts require certain large companies operating in the European Union to prevent. alleviate human rights and environmental damage to all of their activities, including their suppliers abroad. Concretely. this means that a chocolate maker will have an obligation of means before evidence of recourse to child labor with his subcontractors.

However, this progress is far from guaranteed. In 2025. the CS3D was partially weakened by the “Omnibus” package, a set of European legislative reforms in which several Member States have negotiated significant softening of reasonable diligence obligations. Among the concessions granted: an application threshold noted. excluding many intermediate companies, and a weakening of the binding requirements in terms of sanctions. This development raises many concerns in NGOs and human rights defenders, who denounce a chocolate: bitter taste guilty pleasure regression under pressure from industrial lobbies.

Towards a fairer chocolate?

Despite a strong social and environmental cost, it is not a question of giving up chocolate. Rather. it is a question of questioning the production chain, to favor more enlightened, more responsible purchases, by inquiring about the origin, the labels and the social commitments of the brands. It is also at the level of public policies and large companies that a rebalancing is necessary. Revaluate the work of producers. strengthen controls on working conditions, protect the remaining forests: so many levers to make chocolate a less guilty pleasure.