Recent newspaper articles allege the use of slave labor to harvest cocoa beans in the Ivory Coast. “The only way to assure a chocolate bar is made without slave labor is to make sure the chocolate is not made from cocoa beans grown in countries such as the Ivory Coast where slave labor has been documented in the harvesting of cocoa beans,” reports Steven Wallace, President of The Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company.

Omanhene dark milk chocolate is made with cocoa beans grown exclusively in Ghana. There is no use of slave labor on Ghanaian cocoa farms and no such allegations have been made, even after exhaustive investigative reporting in West Africa’s cocoa-growing countries.

Until the founding of Omanhene, virtually every chocolate bar consumed was made from blends of beans grown from around the world; because such bars were made of beans from many countries, it was simply impossible to assure a chocolate bar was not the product of slave labor. “The only way to assure slave-free chocolate is to buy chocolate bars made from beans grown solely in a slave-free country, such as Ghana,” Wallace says. In 1994, Omanhene became the first company in the world to effect worldwide distribution of single-source chocolate – that is, chocolate made from cocoa beans grown exclusively from a single country-of-origin.

“Unlike the Ivory Coast, Ghana’s cocoa farms are small, family-run enterprises of just a few acres each; there is no need for a large supply of cheap labor as each family cultivates only as much as they are able to harvest themselves,” Wallace notes. “The need for cheap labor arises only in countries where cocoa is grown on large cocoa plantations of several hundred acres each. Ghana has no tradition of such large-scale, corporate farms. Further, because the Government of Ghana has stringent quality controls that apply to every cocoa bean grown in the country, cocoa beans from Ghana are sold at premium over the benchmark Ivory Coast beans. Ghana has never been regarded as a source of cheap cocoa beans; rather Ghana enjoys the reputation of growing premium beans – beans that are more expensive than others,” according to Wallace. Indeed, The Financial Times of London reports that, “Ghana grows the finest cocoa in the world.”

Not only is Omanhene dark milk chocolate made exclusively with 100% Ghanaian cocoa beans, it is also manufactured entirely in Ghana. This assures that Ghanaians reap the added value from the processing of their beans into chocolate. Most of the world’s chocolate bars are manufactured in countries that do not actually grow cocoa.

For a true and authentic chocolate, buy Omanhene dark milk chocolate, made in Ghana, using cocoa grown on family-owned cocoa farms. Call 1-800-LUV-CHOC (800-588-2462) or visit our website and order online at www.omanhene.com.