A team from US Customs and Border Protection visited agricultural regions of Ivory Coast last week to begin investigating whether cocoa is produced there with forced or indentured child labour and, if so, whether the US should block cocoa imports.

The investigation follows a July letter from two US senators asking customs officials to issue an order blocking cocoa from Ivory Coast from entering the US unless the shipments are demonstrated to be free of child labour.

The West African nation is the world's largest producer.

Barring Ivory Coast cocoa from reaching the US could have drastic consequences for the world's major chocolate companies - possibly forcing them to abandon their main supply. The measure also likely would extend to any chocolate made with Ivorian cocoa.

Customs officials anticipate taking another trip to Ivory Coast later this year.

Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Show all 12 1 /12 Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Inside the cocoa pod are the beans that poor farmers on São Tomé Island now export to make hot chocolate that is sold in the UK. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Before the cooperative was set up, farmers had to sell the wet cocoa from picked pods by the roadside to local middle men. They would only get 21p per kilo but middle men made a lot of money by drying the cocoa and selling it to exporters. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate The island's main industry is cocoa production. Individual farmers used to live on just 14 pence a day, a hand to mouth existence. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Farmers took an unprecedented leap of faith by moving from a guaranteed income from the middlemen, to working with the cooperative funded by the UK government and Cafédirect. Working with international partners was an unknown and risky move for the farmers. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate The farmers' faith has paid off and now their income has increased five fold. However farmers have had to work hard to learn how to ferment and dry the cocoa to gain a higher price. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Farmer Roque is one of 755 growers from 11 communities that grow cocoa for the hot chocolate. The project funded the fermentation house and fermentation boxes. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate By fermenting and drying the cocoa on the island, local farmers are now learning new skills which they can pass onto their children. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Jose Esperansa, a farmer, is now Managing Director of the cooperative: 'Getting involved in production and exporting has changed the way I think. Now I work more because I have more responsibility with the cooperative and my knowledge has increased. I believe this project will only get better.' Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Jose's involvement in the cooperative has benefitted his family. His wife says: 'I am very happy. I now live in the sky, not on the ground any more. I now earn the money twice - the raw cocoa money to buy food, and the dry cocoa money that I use to send my little kids to school, and to improve my house. I am very happy.' Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate The beans that are made into the hot chocolate are now Fairtrade which means the farmers get a better price and profits are reinvested in the community. Fairtrade accounts for 40% of all instant hot chocolates on the market in the UK and sales grew 3% last year. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate Because of the additional income, farmers are now investing in local facilities like schools and health clinics, improving the lives of their children. Cafedirect Cocoa co-operatives means guilt-free hot chocolate As the cold nights draw in over the winter what could be nicer than a hot chocolate? It's now a guilt free pleasure as the hot chocolate initiative funded by DFID and Cafédirect will improve the lives of 4,500 people on the island. Cafedirect

"We urge you to take all necessary action to ensure that the US is not complicit in indentured child labour in the cocoa sector," the letter from Senators Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden said. "The last 20 years demonstrate that the travesty of forced child labour in the global supply chain cannot be solved by chocolate companies' self-regulation."

In calling for "aggressive action" against child labour in West African cocoa imports, the senators' letter cited a June story in The Washington Post that detailed the use of child labour on the country's cocoa farms and how the world's largest chocolate companies failed to fulfil a promise to eradicate child labour from their supply chains by 2005.

As the US has stepped up scrutiny of Ivorian cocoa supply, Ivory Coast's government has also bolstered its efforts to address child labour and the unwanted publicity it causes for one of the country's major exports.

In July, Ivory Coast signed an agreement with neighbouring Burkina Faso that enables the Ivorians to send back children from Burkina Faso who travel unaccompanied to work on cocoa farms and who are vulnerable to trafficking and other abuses.

Ivorian officials have since turned around two buses from Burkina Faso with about 100 children on board and three buses from Niger with more than 80 children on board, Ivory Coast government officials said.

"We made the agreement to reinforce the fight against child exploitation and cross-border trafficking," Ramata Bakayoko-Ly, Ivorian minister of family, women and children, said through an interpreter. "We want to limit the number of children coming from Burkina Faso. It creates a mechanism for us to return them safely to their family."

There is "no doubt that strengthening protection for this group of particularly vulnerable children should help in the fight against cross-border child trafficking," said Nick Weatherill, director of the International Cocoa Initiative, an organisation working to eliminate child labour.

The group is funded mainly by the cocoa industry and also receives funds from donors including the US government.

Mr Weatherill added that the efforts to return children to their home countries should include measures to ensure their safety in the places they have left - places overwhelmed by poverty and violence.

The "compulsion to migrate is so often driven by conditions of hardship where they live," he said.

The Ivorians also are seeking to raise the price companies pay for cocoa, a boost that would help the government and farmers address the region's poverty, often cited as one of the key causes of child labour.

According to US Labour Department research, a majority of the 2 million child labourers in the West African cocoa industry are living on their parents' farms, doing the type of dangerous work - swinging machetes, carrying heavy loads, spraying pesticides - that international authorities consider the "worst forms of child labour".

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A smaller number, those trafficked from nearby countries, find themselves in the most dire situations.

When asked this spring, representatives of some of the biggest and best-known brands - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - could not guarantee that any of their chocolates were produced without child labour.

"Forced labour is too ingrained in that country's industry to attempt to single out specific cocoa farms or producers as bad actors," the letter from the US Senators said.

To block the Ivorian cocoa from reaching the US, customs officials must have evidence that "reasonably but not conclusively indicates" that cocoa entering the US from Ivory Coast is produced with "forced or indentured" child labour.