RI plays down U.S. 'no child labor' chocolate plan

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Cacao Producers Association (Askindo) has played down a threat by the U.S. to institute "no child labor" labeling for chocolate, saying that it would only create problems for the latter's chocolate industry.

Askindo senior executive Zulhefi Sikumbang also said on Friday that if local cacao products were banned from entering the U.S., Indonesia could offset any decline in cacao exports by shifting it to other markets.

He pointed out that cacao demands from other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil and China had been increasing.

"We will fill the demands from those countries ... We don't have to be worry about the U.S. plan," he told The Jakarta Post.

Last week, a U.S. House of Representatives lawmaker put forward legislation for voluntary "no child labor" labeling that would clearly identify the origin of cacao in chocolate.

The lawmaker said he wanted to ensure U.S. consumers could avoid chocolate "processed by child slavery", referring in particular to reports of child labor on plantations in the Ivory Coast, the world's top cacao producer.

The Ivory Coast produces 43 percent of the world's raw cacao, followed by Ghana and Indonesia. Indonesia supplies one-fourth of U.S. cacao demands.

Zulhefi acknowledged that cacao plantations in Indonesia were dominated by small-sized family-owned plantations where children usually worked alongside their parents.

He said that at least 700,000 children helped maintain the 350,000 hectares of family-owned cacao plantations, which represented 87 percent of the total 400,000 hectares of cacao plantations in the country.

The remaining 13 percent is owned by large companies.

"If the U.S. proceeds with the label plan, then farmers will have to forbid their children from helping them. And we can imagine what would happen to the farms as well as the children," he said.

"As a result, farmers would be forced to spend more money to hire more workers, which could make their small plantations less profitable and may even lead to bankruptcy, while the children could become beggars or prostitutes," Zulhefi added.

Zulhefi criticized the U.S. plan as ineffective in abolishing child labor.

"If the U.S. wants children to stop working, it should provide funds to help children continue their studies," he said.

Zulhefi doubted the U.S. government would proceed with the controversial plan, pointing out that such a move would only damage the U.S. chocolate industry.

"The U.S. chocolate industry could suffer from a lack of cacao stocks," he said." It depends on our cacao beans supply."

He said it would be nearly impossible for the U.S. chocolate industry to get enough cacao beans from other countries because the Ivory Coast and Indonesia were the largest cacao exporters to the U.S.

According to Askindo data, Indonesia exported about 134,000 tons of cacao beans worth US$84 million to the U.S last year.

Reports said that the Ivory Coast exported about 243,000 tons of beans worth $239 million.

Together, the two countries filled 62 percent of U.S. cacao demands of around 600,000 tons per year.

Meanwhile, an official at a cocoa butter exporting firm who declined to be named said that the U.S. plan lacked clarity, particularly on the age of children allowed to work in the cacao industry.

"In our company, we have workers aged around 17 years old," he said.

But he had no clear idea how the U.S. plan would affect his company.

Leading figures in the Ivory Coast's cacao sector have also criticized the U.S. plan, saying that there was misunderstanding about the reality on the ground.

"If the man is going to pass this law, maybe it would be wise for him to come here first and see what it's really like," the head of one cacao company was quoted by Reuters as saying.(05)