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A University of Surrey study has shown that biotechnology may be the key to helping cocoa farmers obtain better prices for their beans.
The global market for chocolate is worth 61 billion dollars annually. Due to the volatile price of cocoa, traders have been looking to purchase cheaper beans from less-forested areas, which can lead to human rights violations and lower quality plants. This has had a negative impact on the practices and prices of legitimate farmers, which has reduced sustainability gains.
The findings were published in the journal Supply Chain Management. They reveal that biomarkers are capable of creating "meta-barcodes", which can be compared to biochemical fingerprints. These unchanging barcodes extracted from the plant's genetic code provide a unique identifier for a plant. The cocoa bean biomarker used in chocolate manufacturing can be used to identify the cocoa producer, cooperative or farm from which the product was derived.
Auditing requires a controlled data set with biomarkers from registered locations to make this process possible. This study explains that companies can create a biomarker database to identify the origin of cocoa products at a cost of approximately 5 per sample, which is roughly the same as buying a box of chocolates.
Glenn Parry, University of Surrey Professor of Digital Transformation, stated that the chocolate market is turbulent and there are evidence of over 100 years of slavery within its supply chain. The ethical dilemma facing governments and chocolate producers is to reform a trade that is riddled with human misery and environmental destruction.
"We have a proven approach that allows them to move forward. Biomarkers can be used to provide visibility into the supply chain, from each farm to the final chocolate bar. This could make it possible to trace the origins of the chocolate in your fridge back to the cocoa tree.
To end slavery and child labor within the chocolate industry, explore further Cocoa DNA testing
More information: Pedro Lafargue and colleagues, Broken chocolate: biomarkers to improve cocoa supply chain visibility. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (2021). Pedro Lafargue and colleagues, Broken chocolate: biomarkers to deliver cocoa supply chain visibility. (2021). DOI: 10.1108/SCM-11-2020-0583
