Sweet Solution

Our new bars may be look-alikes. But they’re made very differently, using Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles. We made them to raise awareness and inspire the whole chocolate industry to act.

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this product is intended to be a parody, and is not affiliated with any company other than Tony’s Chocolonely.

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the bitter truth
The price of cocoa in West Africa is kept so low that famers have no other choice but to use illegal labour to survive. While the rest of the world chooses big profits and cheap prices over human rights.

the bitter truth

the Sweet Solution
Our new bars may be look-alikes. But they’re made very differently, using Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles. We made them to raise awareness and inspire the whole chocolate industry to act.

the sweet solution

how is this still happening?

The price of cocoa is determined by governments and chocolate companies and doesn’t come close to a living income for farmers. The result: big profits in the West. Extreme poverty in West Africa. In the struggle to survive, illegal child labour and unpaid, forced labour continue to be the norm.

why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

The sad truth is, the whole chocolate industry is trying, but not hard enough. Rewind to 2001, when Big Choco signed the Harkin–Engel protocol, pledging to end the worst forms of child labour within five years. In 2010, after failing to meet the deadlines three times, the pledge was extended to reduce illegal child labour by 70% by 2020. Since then, there have been voluntary actions and self-regulating programs. But the problem is as big as ever.

Read more in the NORC Report

what is the Sweet Solution?

It’s not a matter of assigning blame, but about taking responsibility for tackling injustices in the industry. We are all part of the problem, but we can all be part of the Sweet Solution. We need to put human rights before huge profits.

We need laws to make it happen. And we need industry-wide collaboration.

If all chocolate brands in the world work together, we’ll make 100% slave-free the norm in chocolate.

The time to act is now!

Find out how you can be part of the Sweet Solution

these bars may be lookalikes. But they’re made very differently

All Tony’s bars are made using Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles to tackle poverty, unfairness and exploitation in the cocoa supply chain. It’s our way of taking 100% responsibility for our supply chain and giving 100% to getting rid of chocolate’s bitter truth. The four Sweet Solution bars prove that all chocolate, whatever shape, size, or flavour, can be enjoyed guiltlessly this way.

about our 5 sourcing principles

we invite all Choco Fans to choose fairer chocolate

Of course we’d love you to buy our bars*. But we’d much rather that 100% slave free was the norm in chocolate. Tony’s Chocolonely only exists to spark change in the chocolate industry. We made our very first bars 15 years ago in alarm-red wrappers to wake up the world to chocolate’s bitter truth. And we’ll continue until the status quo has changed. You can help us achieve our mission. From spreading the word, to lobbying your government for change.

*Especially the 4 Sweet Solution bars, because all profits go to 100WEEKS, a platform supporting women in African countries to escape extreme poverty through unconditional cash support and financial literacy training.

and we invite all chocolate makers to join in Tony’s Open Chain

We’re working our beans off for 100% slave-free chocolate, but it’s not enough to change all chocolate when it’s just us. We need all chocolate making companies to do the same. So we’ve developed Tony’s Open Chain: a collaborative initiative for an open and transparent supply chain. Supporting fairer cocoa sourcing, and where issues are brought out in the open so they can be solved. 

tonysopenchain.com

If all chocolate brands in the world work together, we’ll make 100% slave-free the norm in chocolate.

The time to act is now!

watch this video to learn about our mission:

play!

The power to change the choco industry is also in your hands. And the time is now!

2021 is designated as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. We need to have laws in place that hold companies accountable. Already we have proposals for legislation in the EU. The Supreme Court in the USA is about to make a big decision on the accountability of chocolate companies. With your support we can change chocolate.

Let’s do this!

check out the digital

to the digital kit

let’s make 100% slave-free (chocolate) the law

With your signature you are supporting Tony’s demand for companies across all sectors – not just Big Choco – to be held legally responsible for protecting human rights in their supply chains.

Sign the petion by filling out the form. If you’re logged into your account we’ve prefilled your info.

I demand governments to hold companies accountable by law for illegal child labor and modern slavery in their supply chains.

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I want to be Serious Friends with Tony’s and I want to receive updates on the petition and Tony’s mission.

1.What’s this “Sweet Solution” campaign all about?

We launched 4 limited edition look-alike bars to create awareness that 20 years after the chocolate industry promised to eradicate illegal child labour, it’s still widely prevalent. Companies are not legally obliged to do their due diligence to trace violations of human rights in their supply chains, let alone solve them. Which is why we’ve called on Choco Fans to be part of the Sweet Solution and sign our petition demanding human rights legislation that holds companies accountable for modern slavery and illegal child labour in their supply chains.

2. Why’d you make these Sweet Solution bars, anyway?

Though the problems in the chocolate industry still loom large, we do believe there are solutions –  like human rights legislation, and making chocolate following Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles, just like we did with our Sweet Solution bars. 

3. Hang on, are you saying all my favorite chocolate is made using child labour?

The bitter truth is that illegal child labour is still highly prevalent in the chocolate industry. But we want to stress that nobody in the industry wants this to be the case. We’re all trying to make a change and each chocolate maker has a taken different approach. But those efforts are simply not enough, as evidenced by the findings of a recent NORC report, and change is taking too long to take hold. But the good news is we can all be part of the solution. Together, we can make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate. 

4. Sooo.. is Tony’s profiting off this campaign?

This campaign doesn’t have a commercial aim.  All profits from Tony’s Sweet Solution bars will be donated to 100WEEKS, an independent platform that uses direct cash transfers and financial training to assist women in escaping the cycle of extreme poverty.

The Sweet Solution-bars themselves were created to raise awareness of the issues in the chocolate industry. Our goal is simple: We demand human rights legislation and want as many of our Choco Fans as possible to sign our petition.

5. Will the bars be added to Tony’s official assortment? 

6. Where can I buy a Sweet Solution bar, and how long before they’re gone? 

The bars will be available at our chocoshop and selected retailers for a short period of time:

The Netherlands – Albert Heijn, De Bijenkorf, WAAR, Marqt

Belgium – Delhaize

UK – online Chocoshop

Ireland: Fresh, Brown Thomas

US – Whole Foods Market

7. So let’s say human rights legislation happens.. will that make all chocolate 100% slave-free?  

8. So the name of the game is accountability in the industry.. how are we gonna make that happen?

Currently, there is no EU legislation that holds chocolate companies accountable for what happens in their supply chains. So yeah.. measures to eradicate illegal child labour are urgently needed. And we also believe it’s necessary to break with the traditional charity-based approach to human rights action, in order to achieve sustainable and long-term change in cocoa communities. We believe the industry will quickly correct itself with the introduction of legal parameters that will force chocolate companies to keep diligent. With momentum building in the EU, a new administration in the US, and the UN designating 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the message is clear.. the time to act is now!   

9. What are you going to do with all these signatures?

By signing our petition you’re supporting child and human rights globally by helping to ensure that manufacturers and retailers across all sectors – not just chocolate – are held legally accountable for what happens in their supply chains. We’ll compile the signatures – of course observing strict privacy laws in the process – and deliver them to the legislative arms of the EU, US and UK governments to get the human rights legislation ball rolling. 

10. But is Tony’s chocolate 100% free of modern slavery and illegal child labour then? 

We still find cases of illegal child labour in our supply chain. In our annual FAIR report you can read about our proactive approach to identifying and remediating illegal child labour and what we do to prevent it from happening. We haven’t found any cases of modern slavery in our supply chain, but we are careful not to claim that our chocolate is 100% slave-free.  After all, we’re part of an industry that is dealing with the serious issues of modern slavery and illegal child as a whole which is why we think it would be presumptuous to make that claim.

11. Why are you working together with Barry Callebaut, the biggest chocolate manufacturer, who itself cannot claim 100% traceability of beans?

Barry Callebaut is the world's largest chocolate manufacturer. In 2005, we deliberately chose to partner with them to show that it is possible to be fully traceable working with a large processor. Our intention has always been to show others that a different way of processing cocoa is feasible. Even from the biggest chocolate manufacturer. Barry Callebaut has believed in our mission and collaborated with us to set up segregated processes for our 100% traceable beans by having a separate butter tank. Working with Barry Callebaut has also allowed us to scale up our production and enables us to grow Tony's Open Chain by processing the 100% traceable cocoa beans from our mission allies.