Tony’s Chocolonely leaves one advent calendar day blank to highlight chocolate industry inequality

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Tony’s Chocolonely’s advent calendar has left a day blank to increase awareness of the inequality faced by cocoa farmers in the chocolate supply chain.

The Dutch chocolate brand’s Big Countdown Calendar – which can set back customers £15 – doesn’t have a bar of chocolate hiding behind door number 10.

The brand, famous for its unequally divided chocolate bars, said the reason behind the missing bar was to highlight the “unequally divided chocolate industry.”

A statement on the company’s website read: “Big chocolate companies make big profits, while cocoa farmers aren’t paid enough for their cocoa. The result? Many of them still live way below the poverty line.”

The company said sometimes farmers were left with little choice but to use illegal labour to farm their cocoa.

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“Right now, there are 1.56 million children working illegally and at least 30,000 instances of forced labour on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire,” the statement said. “Child labour and forced labour just so some folks can enjoy a sweet chocolate treat? Unacceptable!”

Customers will still receive 25 chocolates in 24 days. “There’s still an extra goodie waiting for you closer to Christmas,” the company said.

Founder Teun van de Keuken – known as “Tony” in English – started the company to raise awareness of inequalities in chocolate supply chains – a journey he said was very lonely, with “Chocolonely” thought to capture both his mission and the personal drive that launched the brand.

It launched in the UK five years ago after Mr van de Keuken, a Dutch journalist, uncovered a news story that exposed forced labour in cocoa production—an issue he felt should be front-page news.

He then founded Tony’s Chocolonely as the first-ever Fairtrade traceable milk chocolate. The brand, which is now the largest chocolate comapny in the Netherlands, said it is committed to making all chocolate – not just their own – 100 per cent slave free.

Henk Jan Beltman, the company’s chief chocolate officer, previously told The Independent: “We’re not a chocolate company, we’re an impact company that makes chocolate.”