Sweet Injustice: the chocolate game

This game is a brilliant way to attract people to your stall and to help bring alive the injustices of world trade. You will need 7 people. It works best if a member of your group runs it with six volunteers.

Set the scene

The game demonstrates the way trade works in favour of rich countries and how the low world market price of raw products, in this case cocoa, means that producers in poor countries end up with a very small share of what we pay for a bar of chocolate!

Play the game

Line up the volunteers and give them each a role, based on the list below. Start by giving the cocoa farmer, who owns a plot of land about the size of a football pitch, a chocolate bar that represents the money we pay for a normal bar of chocolate. He/she is invited to open the chocolate bar but warned that before tucking in to the fruits of their labour there are some payments to be made.

Each person will represent one of the people who has to be paid. Make signs for them to hold up so that people watching can understand what is going on. As you read off the percentages below, the farmer should hand that number of squares over to the relevant person. You can ask the cocoa farmer how he or she feels as they lose their chocolate. They normally feel that an injustice is being done!

The chocolate game

These calculations are for a 24 square Fairtrade Divine chocolate bar:

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