Highlights

This year, the Easter bunnies went on strike again for fair chocolate with the motto "Enjoyment without poison!" (German "Genuss ohne Gift!") The focus of this year's action was the increasing use of pesticides in cocoa farming, which still endangers millions of cocoa farmers and their families in West Africa.

In 40 cities and towns across Germany, over 100 activists took to the streets and demanded that the eight largest chocolate companies in Germany end the use of pesticides banned in the EU in their cocoa supply chains by 2025.

Activists were out and about in marketplaces, local shopping areas or street festivals around Easter, calling on passers-by to join the protest by signing their petition. More than 4,000 people supported the action on the streets and online, sending a strong message to the chocolate companies.

Thanks to so much support, the 2023 Easter Action was the biggest in its history and even broke last year's participation record! Thanks to the biggest Easter Bunny protest ever, the first chocolate giants Lindt&Sprüngli as well as Nestlé have already responded to the action and partly declared themselves willing to talk to INKOTA. The public pressure is thus showing effect.

Find the detailed report (in German) on the Easter Bunny strike, all information on how you can still support the action "Genuss ohne Gift!" and how the discussions with the chocolate companies will continue here.

Between Easter and Christmas, more than 2,600 consumers took part in the campaign "End price dumping! #faircocoaprices now!" Together with Make Chocolate Fair! , consumers sent over 7,000 postcards to the eight largest chocolate manufacturers in Germany asking whether they already pay living income cocoa prices to the farmers in their supply chain..

Chocolate companies Ferrero, Stollwerck and Storck completely ignored the consumers' requests. By the end of the campaign, Make Chocolate Fair! had received no response from them. But the answers from Lindt & Sprüngli, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé and Ritter Sport were also disappointing: none of the five companies  actually addressed the question of living income cocoa prices. Instead, they rather referred to insufficient premiums and sustainability programs that cover only part of their supply chains.

Chocolate companies Ferrero, Stollwerck and Storck completely ignored the consumers' requests. By the end of the campaign, Make Chocolate Fair! had received no response from them. But the answers from Lindt & Sprüngli, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé and Ritter Sport were also disappointing: none of the five companies  actually addressed the question of living income cocoa prices. Instead, they rather referred to insufficient premiums and sustainability programs that cover only part of their supply chains.

Consumers must therefore assume that none of the market-leading chocolate companies pays cocoa farmers in their supply chain a cocoa price that makes a life in dignity possible.

In October, Pauline Zéi, director of INKOTA's partner organization Inades Formation Côte d'Ivoire, and Desiré Adon, cocoa farmer and board member of the COOPASA cooperative, came to visit INKOTA in Germany. On a two-week tour from Berlin, via Bonn and Brussels, they spoke with policymakers about the current situation in West African cocoa farming, advocating, for example, for living icome for cocoa farming families and a strong EU supply chain law.

They also engaged with consumers and chocolate manufacturers. During a public event on October 19, they discussed fair cocoa prices, the strengthening of value creation in cocoa-growing countries and what consumers in Germany can do to make exploitation and environmental destruction in the cocoa sector a thing of the past.

From mid-March to Easter, Easter bunnies all over Germany went on strike for fair chocolate. Under the slogan "End price dumping! #faircocoaprizes now!“ they protested against exploitation in the cocoa sector.  Easter bunnies in Germany are fed up with the fact that the majority of cocoa farmers in West Africa live in poverty, whilemajor chocolate companies make their biggest sales around Easter every year.

From Neumünster to Freiburg, from Koblenz to Weimar, activitst groups throughout Germany voiced their displeasure, educated consumers about the causes of poverty and child labour in the cocoa sector, and together sent a clear signal for fair cocoa prices:

They invited passers-by to send a postcard to eight of the leading chocolate companies in Germany and ask whether they already pay fair cocoa prices to the farmers in their supply chain. Participation and solidarity with the cocoa farmers in West Africa was overwhelming: 36 groups in 30 cities followed INKOTA's call to action and together with committed consumers sent several thousand postcards to the chocolate companies. This made this year's Easter campaign the biggest in INKOTA’s history!

You can read about how chocolate companies have responded to consumer requests, and whether any of them are already paying fair cocoa prices, here.

With the e-mail action "Rainforest Alliance, sei kein Frosch!" INKOTA demands the largest certification organisation in the cocoa sector to include living income cocoa prices in its new certification standard. Hundreds of supporters took part in the action and sent e-mails to Rainforest Alliance’s CEO.

As part of a round trip, cocoa farmer Elizabeth Osei Agyei and Sandra Kwabea Sarkwah from INKOTA partner organisation SEND-Ghana are touring across Germany. At events in Berlin, Oldenburg, Speyer and Tübingen, they will report vividly on the situation in cocoa farming in West Africa

As part of the email campaign #nachgehakt: Wie fair ist meine Lieblings-Schoki? (follow-up: How fair is my favourite chocolate?), thousands of Make Chocolate Fair! supporters asked chocolate companies what they are actually doing to improve the living and working conditions of cocoa farmers. A total of 26 companies responded to the consumers' questions. The results show that companies intend to end the poverty of cocoa farming families primarily through training and the purchase of certified cocoa. But there is a lack of transparency as to what effect these initiatives actually have. None of the major chocolate manufacturers has a strategy for achieving a living income for cocoa farming families.