In 2023, an average American spent US$192.80 in Valentine’s Day gifts resulting in about a total of US$25.9 billion spent on that holiday. The top gifts are candy, greeting cards, and flowers, they were respectively bought by 57%, 40%, and 37% of consumers. Gargantuan quantities, a mere 58 billion tons of candy and chocolate, and 250 million roses are bought by Americans on this holiday. An important problem arises: the conditions of production surrounding these goods are not in the minds of consumers hunting for the best bargain. Often, cheaper products resonate with a grand lack of good working conditions for workers who produced them and pollution linked to their transportation. Let’s dive into the production of roses and chocolate to see how that applies:
Roses
It may come as a shock to you, but most flowers sold in the US, Canada, and other countries in the North are not grown locally; they come from Columbia. More than 30 cargo jets, containing about a million red roses each, fly from Colombia to Miami each day in the three weeks before Valentine’s Day. Let’s visualize it with the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator: taking the average weight of an empty cargo plane (e.g. Boeing 747-8F:189 600 kg), adding the average weight of a rose (0.04 kg) multiplied by 1 million (number of roses), we get to 388 700 kg of CO2 emissions per cargo jet. That number is then multiplied by 2 (round trip) and then by 30, we get 23 322 000 kg of CO2 emissions. Just for you to get an idea, these daily CO2 emissions correspond to about 5830 times the yearly CO2 production of an average person.
Still, the floriculture industry has flourished in Colombia. About 6 billion flowers are shipped from Colombia to 90 countries. The US’ effort to stop cocaine trafficking, as well as the high demand for flowers and better fair trade, contributed to the expansion of floriculture in Colombia. As such, new jobs were created to compensate for the growth of the industry. About 130 000 people work in floriculture in Columbia with an average salary of US$300 per month (in 2018) which is above the minimum wage of approximately US$234. Moreover, the revenues associated with the sale of roses for Valentine’s Day account for 20% of the annual revenue for flower growers.
Chocolate
You may have observed that chocolate is getting more and more expensive these days. Indeed, retail prices for chocolate have jumped by 17% over two years. You may think that prices just go up so that the producers can be wealthier, but the overall idea that the statement infers is false. Indeed, even giants in the chocolate industry currently have trouble making ends meet and consequentially need to raise their prices and even let some of their workers go. The market goes as follows: the fluctuation of prices depends wholly on supply and demand. Currently, there is a low supply and production, but high demand, so the prices can only go up.
Current climate issues in West Africa are the reason why the production is at its lowest. In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where 60 % of the total production of cocoa takes place, the crops are damaged because of higher temperatures and because of alternating periods of intense droughts and heavy rain. These conditions leave the cocoa trees frail and more at risk of contracting diseases. More precisely, the International Cocoa Organization has observed that many cocoa trees have black pod disease, swollen shoot, or other fungi-related diseases.
Similarly, cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are underpaid. Their salary is much lower than the Living Income Reference Price. The LIRP tries to adequately calculate the average cost of living of farmers. The farm gate price, another term for their salary, is 54 cents lower in Ghana (US$1.42 vs US$1.96 per day) and 1.22$ in Côte d’Ivoire (US$1.23 vs US$2.45 per day) than what it should be according to the LIRP. Ghana’s government sets a low farm price and therefore ‟prevents farmers from maximizing their earnings” (Gneiting).
The high demand for chocolate is not new. Chocolate has been a synonym for Valentine’s Day since 1868. Why, might you ask? That’s all because of Richard Cadbury, the inventor of the first heart-shaped box of chocolates. Cadbury’s was, and is still, an important chocolate manufacturing company in the drinking chocolate business. Drinking chocolate, more commonly known as hot chocolate today, was a popular drink in the UK. By extracting pure cocoa butter from the cocoa beans, Cadbury’s made changes to its original drinking chocolate recipe. This method led to some excess cocoa butter. To maximize profits from excesses, eating chocolate was produced. Moreover, to increase chocolate sales, Richard Cadbury himself designed the boxes containing the eating chocolates, which eventually led to the creation of heart-shaped boxes and the marketing frenzy surrounding gifting chocolate on Valentine’s Day.
To conclude, make sure that what you purchase for your loved ones or yourself, on Valentine’s Day or really any other occasion, respects the rights of the workers who produced it. Finally, try to buy locally or if it is not possible, make sure that it emits little CO2 in transport.
References
Butler, Stephanie. “How Chocolate Became a Valentine’s Day Staple.” History, A&E Television Networks, 4 Jan. 2021, www.history.com/news/valentines-day-chocolate-box-history-cadbury.
“ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator.” ICAO, www.icao.int/environmental-protection/Carbonoffset/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.
Paletta, Damian. “In Rose Beds, Money Blooms.”The Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/02/10/feature/colombia-rose-trade-industry-valentines-day/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
Towfighi, John. “Cocoa Prices Are Soaring. Will It Affect Your Valentine’s Day Chocolate?” CTV News, 12 Feb. 2024, www.ctvnews.ca/business/cocoa-prices-are-soaring-will-it-affect-your-valentine-s-day-chocolate-1.6765532. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
“What’s Your Carbon Footprint?” UCAR Center for Science Education, scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/climate-solutions/carbon-footprint. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
“2024 Valentine’s Day Shopping Statistics: Total Sales (by Year).” Capital One Shopping, 2 Jan. 2024, capitaloneshopping.com/research/valentines-day-shopping-statistics/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
