Cocoa-Nomics: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary airs Thursday 27 February at 9pm WAT

Two years ago, CNN Freedom Project documentary ‘Chocolate’s Child Slaves’ exposed the plight of young Africans forced to harvest the beans that make the chocolate we eat around the world. Many of the children made to work in the cocoa plantations in countries like Ivory Coast are forced to work long hours in appalling conditions, most have never even tasted chocolate.

Now CNN host Richard Quest has returned to the plantations, with José Lopez, the Executive Vice President of Nestle, to find out if anything has changed and to see if chocolate producers are willing and able to eradicate slavery from their industry. Quest follows the supply chain, from bean to bar, examining the collective efforts to reform the cocoa industry – the fundamental socio-economic solutions needed to secure a sustainable future for cocoa farming and the chocolate industry.

As the global demand for chocolate rises, so does the threat to the supply of cocoa; this is a pivotal time in the development of the cocoa economy in West Africa – for the industry, the next generation of cocoa farmers and for chocolate lovers.