Today our time in Amsterdam came to a close with a deep dive into Tony Chocolonely and a group dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. 

After a good night’s sleep, I started to pack before our Tony Chocolonely presentation at 2:00. Joke Aerts, a member of the Tony Chocolonely team, explained to us the Tony Chocolonley’s dedication to sustainable and ethical chocolate making. The cocoa industry is flooded with child labor (approximately 1.56 million illegal child workers) and deforestation but Tony Chocolonely is taking immeasurable strides to reduce and eliminate child labor within its supply chain. In fact, Joke noted, Tony Chocolonely has an open supply chain that allows the company to be transparent to consumers about where and how cocoa is sourced. The five interrelated sourcing principles of an open cocoa supply chain are traceable beans (knowing where cocoa beans came from, a higher price (ensuring a living income for farmers), strong farmers (empowering farmers to change inequality), the long-term (continual business with the same farmers), and productivity and quality (professionalize farmers). Out of those five principles, I found having traceable beans to be the most interesting, given that 55% of cocoa beans in the cocoa industry just show up on the market and are untraceable. Joke further explained that traceability has three levels: operational (standard bean tracking with maps), environmental (checking forest maps for deforestation), and social (child labor monitoring and reduction system). I was incredibly impressed by how dedicated Tony Chocolonely is to reducing deforestation and child labor in the chocolate industry. The company builds schools in other countries and performs routine checks on its farms to ensure children are not being forced into labor. After Tony Chocolonely’s open supply chain model was implemented, the amount of child labor within their supply chain was reduced from 46% to 4%. While the company has a ways to go to reach 0%, they are still the leading sustainable and ethical chocolate brand in the world. 

Although I had my sights set on making my own chocolate bar at the Tony Chocolonely store, the chocolate bar-making machine was closed for the day. Nevertheless, I still indulged in some chocolate and bought a variety of flavors to bring back home. I was impressed at how inexpensive the large bars of chocolate were given how the company pays their farmers more and makes less of a profit. 

We ended the night at an Indonesian restaurant and had an amazing buffet-style dinner. At the close of dinner Dr. Bursic, Dasha, and Frank gave some closing remarks on the trip and set us loose for gelato. Overall, I am so happy I decided to do a Plus3 this year. When I was applying to colleges, I knew I wanted to study abroad, and the shorter time frame in a Plus3 program that Pitt offered was perfect for my schedule. I am incredibly grateful for all of the new friends I made on this trip and look forward to seeing people in the fall! Doei!