Mondelēz made billions. Cocoa farmers still live in poverty
Ellie Finkelstein, Freedom United
You are standing at the checkout with Valentine’s Day chocolate, you’re doing the math—deciding what you can justify, what you’ll put back. Chocolate costs more. Everything does.
Meanwhile, Mondelēz, one of the world’s biggest chocolate companies—think Cadbury, Oreo, Milka—is celebrating.[1] Last week, they returned $4.9 billion to shareholders—while the people who grow its cocoa remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and exploitation that the company has the power to fix.
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While you pay more at the checkout and millions of cocoa farmers in West Africa remain trapped in extreme poverty, shareholders and chocolate companies are profiting.
Farmer poverty isn’t separate from exploitation—it drives it.
When families are paid so little, they are forced into impossible decisions: send children to school or rely on their labor to survive. Protect forests or clear more land to grow enough cocoa to make ends meet. Accept dangerous, exploitative work because there are no other options.
And in extreme cases, unable to pay for help, farmers turn to forced labor. As a result, around 1.56 million children continue to work in hazardous conditions in cocoa-growing communities, some of whom have been trafficked.[2]
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What makes this worse is that Mondelēz knows exactly how serious the crisis is, but they’ve chosen a different priority.
In its 2025 earnings call, company executives admitted that “consumers are fed up” with rising prices in a cost-of-living crisis.[3]They spoke openly about people’s fears about job security and affordability.
They have lots of empathy—not for exploited children or those of us choosing “milk, meat, bread” instead of treats, but for their own profits. Executives warned that “snacking is being affected” and the solution is clear.
Not paying cocoa farmers a living income.
Not investing meaningfully in sustainable cocoa farming.
Not lowering the prices of their products.
No, their solution is to add protein to things instead. Protein bars! Protein biscuits! The protein Oreo will solve all the problems.
Farmers are struggling with climate shocks, crop disease, and poverty wages—the biggest drivers of exploitation, hazardous child labor, deforestation and rising costs of cocoa. And Mondelēz’s response is to double down on sales strategy.
This isn’t about a lack of resources to pay farmers living wages. It’s about a lack of will. It’s about greed.[4]
If that doesn’t sit right with you, take action now.
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| This Valentine’s Day, we’re calling on Mondelēz to change course and put people before profits. If chocolate companies can raise prices for consumers and return billions to shareholders, they can root out exploitation by ensuring the people who grow cocoa are paid fairly. |
| In solidarity, Ellie and the rest of the Freedom United team |
| Ellie Finkelstein Campaigner and News Editor, Freedom United |
[1] Mondelēz International is one of the world’s largest snack companies, with a portfolio that includes a variety of cocoa products, including Cadbury, Milka, Toblerone, Oreo, and Chips Ahoy! Mondelēz has an annual revenue of about 26.5 billion and operates in approximately 160 countries.
[2] https://voicenetwork.cc/resources/2025-cocoa-barometer/
[4] https://www.freedomunited.org/news/chocolate-modern-slavery-willpower/
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