We love chocolate here in the UK – nearly 95% of us admit to eating chocolate on at least a monthly basis.

However, the way that our favourite treat is made may be about to drastically change.

‘Big Chocolate’ are already pumping millions into new technology to create lab-grown cocoa as an alternative to traditional cocoa production.

But that's coming with a cost - taking many farming communities out of the equation.

While it’s already being posed as a ‘more ethical’ chocolate solution, could it actually be resulting in the exact opposite?

What is lab-grown chocolate?

Lab-grown chocolate, sometimes known as synthetic chocolate or cell-cultured chocolate, is a new technology which extracts the cells of real cocoa beans and grows them in a controlled environment, such as a lab. 

As a result, there’s no need for traditional farming techniques using cocoa trees outdoors and harvesting the pods.

Why would that be a preferable way to the traditional way to make chocolate? Well, in theory, it can be argued that lab-grown chocolate increases climate resilience, produces a more stable supply chain and reduces the impact of deforestation.

What are the potential issues?

The cocoa plant, as we know it now, is harvested by real people – there are more than five million cocoa farmers worldwide.

These farmers are already facing major concerns, with a large proportion falling below the extreme poverty line after taking home a tiny fraction of the final retail price themselves. On average, cocoa farmers receive just 6% of the final value of a chocolate bar.

But the creation of lab grown chocolate doesn’t address these issues. In fact, it takes those farmers completely out of the equation.

Cocoa farming is the backbone of rural economies across West Africa, Latin America, and Asia – providing an income for people relying on the industry to provide for their family and build a more secure future. What happens if that income totally evaporates?

While innovation is a good thing, it shouldn’t allow businesses to dodge responsibility and ignore millions of cocoa farmers who are already being exploited.

The focus of innovation instead should be how it can be used to support farmers at the centre of the cocoa industry, not to make them even more vulnerable.

What should be done about it?

Fairtrade is calling on the companies investing billions into exploring lab‑grown cocoa to:

• Be transparent with consumers with on‑pack information and in marketing that the cocoa used in the product is grown in a lab
• Disclose their environmental impacts and energy use
• Avoid misleading claims or greenwashing, including suggesting lab‑grown cocoa is inherently “more ethical” while ignoring farmer impacts
• Increase investment in sustainable, fair, and traceable cocoa supply chains that deliver living incomes for farmers
• Not use lab‑grown cocoa to avoid fixing exploitation, low incomes and wages, or deforestation in real supply chains

Fairtrade puts the rights of cocoa farmers first. The best solution to tackle the issues in the cocoa supply chain is still by using responsibly grown cocoa.

Innovation has a role to play in building a more sustainable future, but it must never sideline the people whose work, knowledge, and communities sustain the cocoa sector.

If you want to learn more about how Fairtrade works with farmers and workers in the cocoa industry, go to our cocoa page.