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CHOC-HOLICS AT THE CHECKOUT |
NUMBER SEVEN
"You eat the chocolate
biscuits - you who have never seen a cacao
tree. We pick the cocoa beans - we who have never tasted chocolate."
Bernard Guri, CAFOD partner, Ghana
Choc-holics Quiz - Group Activity - Quiz Answers - Take Action - Find Out - Get Involved - Our Addresses
Chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the western world. At a time when we're becoming more conscious of what we eat, our appetite for chocolate has not shrunk at all. Despite the high sugar, fat and caffeine content, people are eating more chocolate each year.
Chocolate is here to stay. But, apart from the vast array of goodies we see on the shelves, how much do we know about who makes it and where it comes from? Try this quiz and see how you do.
1. From which plant or tree do we get chocolate?
(a) cocoa tree (b) cacao tree (c) cocoa plant2. From which country do the U.K. and Ireland get most of their cocoa?
(a) Ghana (b) Brazil (c) Malaysia3. Three companies are responsible for over four-fifths (84%) of all chocolate sales in the UK. Which are they?
4. Which is the best selling chocolate in the UK and Ireland?
5. Nestle Rowntree products make up about 28% of the chocolate market. How many acres of cocoa plantations do they own?
(a) one million (b) six million (c) none6. During the last ten years, the price of a bar of chocolate in our shops has gone up by two thirds. Roughly, has the price of cocoa on the world market...
(a) doubled? (b) halved? (c) stayed the same?
7. If selling chocolate is more profitable than cocoa beans, why don't countries like Ghana make chocolate?
(a) it costs more to export it to other countries (b) they can't afford chocolate-making equipment (c) it would melt in the hot climate?8. The import tax set by the EC on cocoa beans is 3%. What is it for the chocolate?
(a) 6% (b) 12% (c) 16%9. The British Government's overseas aid spending in 1898 was �1.6 billion. In the same year, how much money did British people spend on chocolate?
(a) 1.6 billion (b) 2.3 billion (c) 2.7 billion10. Which of the following things is not contained in a bar of milk chocolate?
(a) protein (b) iron (c) calcium
GROUP ACTIVITY
1. In small groups of three or four, ask participants to list the names of their favourite chocolate bars. Roughly, how much might they spend on chocolate in a week?
2. Use this quiz as a variation of an old party game. You will need a hat, gloves, scarf, plate, knife and fork and a bar of chocolate. Staying in groups (now teams) sit in a circle, placing all the objects in the middle. Read the quiz rules:
 | The leader asks team 1 a question. If they get it right, one person from the team puts on the hat, gloves and scarf and tries to eat the chocolate using the knife and fork. |
| The full answer is read out and the next question addressed to Team 2. As soon as someone answers correctly, the clothing and knife and fork have to be passed to the new winner. |
| Each team has just one chance to answer. If they get it wrong the question is opened up to the others. |
| Some answers contain clues to other questions. |
| The game ends when all 10 questions have been answered. Any remaining chocolate is shared out. |
3. After the game, ask teams to discuss what surprised them most about what they found out. Ask for comments in the large group.
4. Regardless of how much money we have, we do have a choice about how we spend it. What things are important to you in deciding which brand to choose? What are 'fair trade' products? How can we find out whether the things we buy are traded fairly?
Quiz answers
| 1. (b) The cacao tree, or 'theobroma cacao', which means 'Food of the Gods'. Each tree produces 20-30 pods each year, which contain the cocoa beans. The annual crop from one tree makes just one kilo of cocoa. | 6. (b) It has more or less halved. The cost of our chocolate may go up each year, but so many countries have been encouraged to produce cocoa that buyers can play them off against each other to get the prices down. |
| 2. (a) Ghana. Both the Ivory Coast and Brazil produce more, but Britain introduced cocoa to Ghana during colonial times, and still gets most of its cocoa from there. Today over half of Ghana's export income comes from cocoa. | 7. (a) It costs more to export. The problem isn't the cost of transport, but the taxes charged by rich governments on goods entering their countries. These are much higher for processed goods like chocolate than for raw materials like cocoa beans. |
| 3. Mars (30%), Nestle-Rowntree (28%), and Cadbury-Schweppes (26%). Although cocoa is mainly grown in the poor countries of the South, the chocolate market is dominated by huge multinational companies controlled by the US and Europe. | 8. (c) 16%. With these high taxes, the European Community protects its own chocolate processing industries, and ensures that countries like Ghana continue to produce cheap cocoa beans for our consumption. |
| 4. KitKat. 50 KitKats are eaten every second of the day! This brings in �160 million a year for the manufacturer. | 9. (b) �2.3 billion is spent on chocolate each year - that's �40 per person! |
| 5. (c) None. Most cocoa beans are grown, dried and fermented by small independent farmers and then sold for processing. Chocolate companies can make more profit by processing and marketing cocoa than by growing it. | 10. A trick question. Protein, iron and calcium are all to be found in a bar of milk chocolate, which is a quick and easily digested source of energy. |
Take Action:
Watch out for the 'Fairtrade Mark' which should start appearing on products in the shops. This will help shoppers choose goods which have been produced and traded more fairly.
Traidcraft, a trading company which tries to give poor producers a fairer price, has launched a 'fair trade' chocolate called 'Mascao'. This is made with cocoa bought in Bolivia and sugar bought directly from small, independent farmers in the Philippines.
See if you can taste the difference! Available from: Traidcraft, Kingsway, Gateshead, NE11 0NE |
Lots of information about products and the companies who make them can be found in the book Shopping for a Better World, a guide to the top 2,500 brands in our shops. Priced at �4.99, it should be available in major bookshops.
Whether it's cocoa from Ghana, bananas from Dominica or coffee from Brazil, the actions of young people in Britain and Ireland do make a difference. Through Changemakers 2000, young people are working with the poor for a fairer deal. Why not join in? Write for free details to:
Christian
Aid |
CAFOD |
SCIAF |
