The Lights Came On

SYDNEY, 7 May 2026 — Be Slavery Free today released the 7th Edition of the Chocolate Scorecard, an independent assessment of 49 of the world's largest chocolate companies and retailers — around 9 in every 10 cocoa beans are assessed. After years of estimates, the industry has measured itself. The picture is sharper than ever — and starker than anyone assumed.

Three findings define this year:

1. Living income — Less than one-third of cocoa farmers in major chocolate supply chains are confirmed to earn a living income.

2. Deforestation — cocoa is still the leading driver of forest loss in West Africa, weeks out from Europe's new deforestation rules.

3. Child labour — 94% of large companies now report cases in their supply chains. The industry built the monitoring. It hasn't built the paying. We are counting, not preventing.

1. Living income — the lights came on

For years, the industry estimated. Now it measures. The unknown share of farmers is decreasing. The fact that survives the new accounting: more than half of the farmers growing cocoa for the world's biggest chocolate companies cannot afford the basics of a decent life.

A cocoa farmer in Ghana earns about eleven cents from an eight-dollar block of dairy milk chocolate. The rest goes to manufacturers, retailers, traders and shareholders. Closing the gap to a living income would add roughly twenty centsat the till. The price of a chocolate bar that doesn't pull a family under.

Most companies have written living-income policies. Few have changed how they actually buy.

2. Deforestation — the forest pays the price the farmer doesn't

Cocoa has driven forest loss across West Africa for decades. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana — two-thirds of the world's cocoa — have lost most of their forests since 1960. When a farmer's trees stop yielding and the price won't pay for new seedlings, the cheapest answer is to clear another patch.

From 31 December 2026, the EU Deforestation Regulation changes the rules. Every cocoa bean entering Europe must be traceable to a specific plot, proven not to have been cleared from forest. The industry splits into three: companies that are ready, companies that say they're ready, and companies quietly hoping the deadline gets pushed.

The chocolate that disappears from European shelves will be the chocolate the company couldn't trace.

3. Child labour — we are counting, not preventing

In 2001, the chocolate industry promised to eliminate child labour from cocoa farming. They set deadlines, missed them, set new ones. By 2020, no child was meant to be working in hazardous conditions on a cocoa farm. In 2026, that promise is unfulfilled.

The last major field study in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana is eight years old. Since then the industry has learnt how to find children in cocoa fields. It hasn't learnt how to make sure their families don't need to send them.

Companies can name the children working in their supply chains. They will not pay the price for cocoa that would send those children home or to school.

Reporting has shifted fast. In 2023, 45% of large companies shared child-labour data. In 2025, 82%. This year, 94% of large companies and 70% of retailers report cases. The industry has built one of the most extensive supply-chain monitoring systems in any consumer sector.

It hasn't built the paying system that would go with it. The leaders pair finding with fixing — remediation alongside the structural work that keeps children out of the fields, like living-income payment and school access. Most companies have detection alone.

We know the children. We know where they are. We are not yet doing what's needed to keep them out of the fields.

Quote — Fuzz Kitto, Director, Be Slavery Free

“For years the industry estimated. Now it measures. The lights have come on, and the picture is stark. We know how many farmers earn below a living income. We know which companies are ready for the European deforestation rules and which are not. We can name the children working in cocoa supply chains. The question is no longer what we know. It is what we choose to do.”

Good Egg Awards

Congratulations! These companies are industry leaders. They treat the farmers who grow their cocoa as seriously as the chocolate that ends up on the shelf.

Halba · Coop · Original Beans

Gender Award — Tony's Chocolonely

For treating gender equality as long-term structural change that shows up in farming households first.

Farmer Health Award (inaugural) — The Hershey Company

Because a resilient supply chain starts with healthy farmers.

Retail Stayers Award

Since 2021, these eight retailers have done something deceptively simple. They've stayed. Year after year, they have submitted to scrutiny, engaged with uncomfortable findings, and grappled with the wicked problems of child labour, deforestation and farmer poverty that still shadow the cocoa industry. They don't always score well. That's precisely the point. Showing up, consistently and willingly, is its own form of leadership.

Ahold Delhaize · ALDI Nord · ALDI South · Carrefour · Coop · Migros · Système U · Woolworths

Bad Egg Award — companies that decline to participate

No questionnaire. No evidence. No engagement. The Scorecard does not guess at scores. The row is left largely blank. Silence is a position.

Mondelēz International — owner of Cadbury, Milka, Toblerone, Côte d'Or and Green & Black's. The second-largest chocolate company in the world.

Starbucks — a coffee company with a serious cocoa footprint: hot chocolate, mochas, frappuccinos, and the seasonal chocolate-forward range.

What shoppers can do

The label on the back of the bar will not tell you how the farmer was paid, whether children worked the harvest, or whether forest was cleared to grow the cocoa. The Chocolate Scorecard will. Visit www.chocolatescorecard.com to see how the chocolate in your trolley scores.

Quote — Carolyn Kitto, Director, Be Slavery Free

“The Good Eggs show this is solvable. They have done the work, opened the books, and stood the scrutiny. The Bad Eggs have made a different choice — to stay silent, to leave the row blank, to hope no one notices. Silence is a position. The Scorecard records it.”

© Scoop Media