Even we were surprised to realize the actual cost of cocoa in most chocolate. In fact, farmers get less than 5% of the purchase price for most chocolate. What are you paying for? Oxfam studies poverty and the chocolate industry, producing this chart:
There are of course a variety of costs to produce chocolate for all of us. But as you can clearly see, there is room to pay the farmers a premium for the beans in order to get the best quality beans with ethical practices, and increasing the farmers' incomes.
At Parré, we pay a higher amount to farmers. For example, in 2018, the average cost of beans in the commodity market, (the vast majority of beans is priced at this level) was about $2,300 per ton. In comparison, we paid $6,900 for our Guatemala and $7,120 for our Colombia beans during that time. A premium of 200%-210%.
It ends up being a small price for you and us to pay in order to try to do the right thing.
