Women cocoa workers face more risk of exploitation, says new study

WORKERS IN the cocoa industry’s global supply chains experience forced labour and widespread exploitation, according to new research from Yorkshire.

Experts at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at the University of Sheffield found that women workers tend to experience more severe forms of exploitation, and that cocoa industry business models are configured to profit from women’s unequal position within the industry and society.

The study, published in the

Journal of Development Studies, claims that cocoa workers in Ghana endure physical and sexual violence, verbal abuse and food deprivation. Many experience involuntary labour and face going unpaid, underpaid or having their pay withheld.

Using data gathered in 2016 and 2017 from 74 cocoa communities from Ghana’s two largest cocoa-producing regions, the Western and Ashanti regions, the researchers uncovered the ways in which gender shapes patterns of work and exploitation. Factors such as gender norms and divisions of labour, payment practices and income inequalities, unequal land access, a lack of access to justice, and more come together to render women workers disproportionately vulnerable.

Professor Genevieve LeBaron, director of SPERI at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study, said: “This study has uncovered the brutal reality of life for workers in the cocoa industry’s supply chains – where business models are built on exploitation and inequality.”