SDS sourcing commitment-

Small Dream Sweets works directly with suppliers in the Pacific & in South America. Purchasing from collectives that represent only a small number of farms. This trade allows us to ask questions about the agricultural processes, ensure cacao is free of pesticides, know that producers and workers are being paid fairly and that labour abuses are not involved in the supply chain.

SDS makes all its own chocolate from scratch! We use cacao and cocoa butter purchased from single origin producers in Papua New Guinea & Ecuador, Australian milk powder and Queensland grown raw sugar. We don’t buy chocolate as a raw material from other brands.

The untenable trajectory of cacao-

Most large chocolate companies purchase ‘commodity cocoa’, that comes from a mixture of origins from all over the world, processed in Europe. Even cacao that is bought somewhat directly through this system, still obliges by corrupt trading networks that are entrenched domestically in cacao producing countries. In Côte d’Ivoire for example, cacao is traded through central marketplaces domestically.

Chocolate manufacturers and cacao procurers in Europe buy through these centralised markets or licensed cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire, in accordance with local law. The question is how does the cocoa get from the plantation to this marketplace?

Unfortunately, human trafficking, slave labour, gross underpayment of staff and even child labour are all abuses widespread in Côte d’Ivoire’s cacao scene. The system of using a central marketplace as a middleman for exporting cocoa out of the continent, means all these practices are hidden and are not answerable to any authority. Cacao beans are traded at gates of farms and at small markets to become aggregate product sold at collectives. There is often little to no direct connection to farmers, leaving any analysis of traceability seriously muddied.

Côte d’Ivoire has sadly also decimated its natural forest habitat over the last 50 years (losing 90% of forest coverage since 1979) in favour of cultivating and expanding endless cacao plantations.

This reckless system, devoid of accountability and each year further entrenching disastrously ecologically destructive practices, has led to the industry-famed collapse of our market. In 2024, commodity cocoa reached 4x it’s historic average price as symptoms of climate change meant abnormal flooding in Ghana and spread of swollen shoot virus in Côte d’Ivoire due to acute lack of biodiversity, the cacao supply crashed.

The facts of this situation are messages many of us in industry have already long understood:

Cacao plantations will not survive a rising temperature climate and cannot be healthy in the absence of biodiversity.

Remedying the cacao industry -

By buying cacao from small farms and collectives directly, we can selectively collaborate with growers that prioritse sustainable practices and safeguard biodiversity. Retaining a variety of trees and vegetation on plantations ensures rich soil health & allows natural feedback mechanisms to continue uninterrupted. These farmers work collaboratively with their environments, not independent of them. This harmony is possible on a larger scale and is crucial for the continued viability of this industry. While all chocolate prices continue to increase globally, ‘cheap chocolate’ with dubious origins and total absence of accountability is becoming much the same price as its clearly superior counterpart: bean-to-bar. Bean-to-bar producers are the perfect alternative to mass produced chocolate and commodity cocoa. They are the only people offering a sustainable future, fair pay and work conditions for farmers, and a vision to protect earth’s biodiversity while still enjoying this coveted commodity.

The solution lies in the small. Small farms, small collectives, small dreams.