Delicious Chocolate that is Fairtrade and Slavery Free.
The History of Tony’s Chocolonely
Almost 15 years ago, Dutch journalist Teun (Tony) van de Keuken started investigating the use of slavery in the cocoa industry for the consumer watchdog show Keuringsdienst van Waarde. He was shocked to discover that most of the chocolate on supermarket shelves was made from cocoa harvested by slaves — and worse still, by child slaves. He decided to take action. First he approached some of the world’s largest chocolate makers, but they ignored him.
So he rolled up his sleeves and started to raise awareness of the issue. He ate a couple of chocolate bars and turned himself in to the authorities as a chocolate criminal. By eating chocolate, he was complicit in slavery. But the public prosecutor wouldn’t prosecute him. Teun didn’t give up. He went looking for victims of chocolate consumption. He found 4 boys who had worked as slaves on a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast and asked them to act as witnesses. They provided evidence against Teun and the 2,136 other chocolate consumers who had since joined Teun in his campaign. On 29 November 2005, still awaiting the judge’s decision, Teun decided to lead by example and make 5,000 Fairtrade chocolate bars. Tony’s Chocolonely was born.
The very first Fairtrade Tony’s Chocolonely bars hit the supermarket shelves in 2005. In 2006 the company became legit by registering with the Chamber of Commerce. We’ve been flying high ever since, but our number one priority has always remained the same. We want to eradicate slavery from the global chocolate industry.
