Easter Eggs

The Real Cocoa Crisis

Cocoa farmers are almost all extremely poor. Cocoa can only be grown in tropical countries, and it is almost entirely grown by smallholders. The bulk of production is in West Africa, with Ivory Coast – the biggest exporter – producing 43% of the world’s supply. Ghana is in second place, and produces about 20%.

It is now nearly twenty years since the Western media first started talking about child labour in West African cocoa production, including forced labour. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, in which companies promised to tackle the issue, was signed in 2001. Child labour reports, sustainability projects and 2020 targets abound. 

Despite this, there is little evidence of significant progress. There are still estimated to be about two million children working on cocoa farms in West Africa. There is particularly profound concern about it because it is such hazardous work; cocoa pods are split with machetes, toxic chemicals are used, and the children carry extremely heavy loads. Injuries are extremely common.

The media attention on child labour has led to a major rise in the proportion of cocoa that is certified by a third-party standard, from 2% a decade ago to about a quarter today. It is still growing fast as companies push towards their 2020 targets. UTZ is by far the most popular, followed by Rainforest Alliance, and then Fairtrade.There is also a small amount that is certified organic. 

We have given extra Product Sustainability points on our score tables to brands that are 100% organic, Fairtrade, UTZ, Rainforest Alliance.

We have also rated all the companies on their cocoa sourcing policy:

Best rating - Divine, Plamil, Moo Free, Booja Booja, Cocoa Loco, Montezuma, Lindt

Worst rating - Nestle, Mondelez, Ferrero, Mars, Hotel Chocolat, Guylian, Tesco

Fairtrade eggs

Ethical Consumer recommends buying Fairtrade eggs where possible, ensuring that the farmers receive more money for their cocoa. Fairtrade chocolate also has to guarantee that no trafficked labour has been used in the harvesting of the cocoa beans.

Fairtrade certified easter eggs are marked on the scoretable by an [F]. All the Easter eggs of the following brands are Fairtrade:

• Cocoa Loco
• Co-op own-brand 
• Green & Black's 
• Divine 

Rainforest Alliance & UTZ

Some of Plamil's eggs are UTZ certified whilst all of Tesco's easter eggs are certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

See the chocolate guide for details about the differences between these certifications and why we think Fairtrade is the best.

The best Easter eggs for palm oil

Chocolate itself does not generally contain palm oil. However, fillings such as biscuit commonly do, so we rated all of the companies on their palm oil policies. 

The following brands get our best rating for palm oil for either being palm-oil free or using sustainable palm oil:

• Divine, Cocoa Loco, Montezuma, Moo Free and Booja Booja are all palm oil free companies.
• Plamil use sustainable palm oil

Two companies - Mondelez and Nestle - get our worst rating for palm oil for using unsustainable palm oil.

Vegan Easter eggs

Whilst many dark chocolate Easter eggs will be vegan, the following brands are made by vegan companies:

• Plamil,
• Moo Free,
• Booja Booja.

Additionally the following brands sell some vegan Easter eggs: Divine, Montezuma, Hotel Chocolat, Lindt dark bunnies

Eggsessive packaging - buy a bar of chocolate instead?

Many easter eggs come packaging in plastic and cardboard. Avoid eggsessive packaging and buy a bar of Fairtrade chocolate instead.

This Easter, you could by-pass the traditional easter egg and buy a bar of Fairtrade chocolate instead. "Even though many brands have reduced the amount of packaging on their eggs, we still think it's an excessive amount of cardboard and plastic" says Jane Turner from Ethical Consumer. "Many mini eggs, for example, are individually wrapped in tin foil. You'll still get much more chocolate for your money - and much less packaging too - by buying a large bar of chocolate instead".

When Ethical Consumer last looked at chocolate bars, the Best Buys are the following:

The chocolate best buy brands were the ones which stood out as being different. Divine is part-owned by Ghanaian cocoa farmers, Plamil is a vegan company, Chocolat Madagascar and Pacari are value added at source. (Chocolat Madagascar and Pacari do not make Easter eggs.)

Of the supermarkets, all of The Co-op's bars of chocolate are Fairtrade. See our product guide to chocolate. 

Supermarket own brands

We have only included two supermarket brands on the score table above - Co-op and Tesco - because these are the only two that have all the cocoa that they use in their own brand Easter eggs certified. Co-op chocolate is Fairtrade certified and Tesco chcolate is Rainforest Alliance.

See the supermarket guide for the ratings of the other supermarkets.