The real cost of the Easter eggs we buy

Most Easter eggs enjoyed by chocolate lovers in the UK this weekend will have been made from cocoa beans farmed by exploited child labour, according to anti-slavery experts. This is despite promises by the chocolate industry to eradicate child labour in West Africa.

A US government-sponsored study reveals that children are still working long hours in dangerous conditions, and regularly missing school. Industry promises were worthless, anti-slavery experts said yesterday, adding that chocolate giants such as Nestlé and Mars cannot guarantee that popular makes of Easter eggs do not involve abusive child labour.

That labour will almost certainly include children such as eight-year-old twins Hassan and Hussein who, during the last harvest in Sinikosson, Ivory Coast, used machetes to scoop beans out of pods on a neighbour's farm, working from sunrise to sunset. The farmer was in debt and could not afford to pay them. As in many such cases, his family helps the twins' father in return. None of the children working with the twins goes to school.

"It is very likely your Easter egg today will have been made from beans harvested by exploited children," said Phil Lane, of the anti-slavery coalition, Stop the Traffik.

Easter eggs account for 8 per cent of all chocolate sold in the UK. Last year £336m was spent on Easter chocolates with £75m spent on Fairtrade eggs. That figure is expected to grow by £30m this year.

"Chocolate manufacturers hold all the power; they control the prices and are making the big profits. Farmers have no power. Abuses happen because [farmers] are not paid enough by the multinationals so cannot afford to pay adult wages," Mr Lane said.

An estimated 12,000 children have been trafficked into cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, which produces nearly half the world's cocoa. As many as 280,000 children work on small farms across West Africa.

Eradicating abusive child labour was central to an agreement the chocolate industry signed in 2001. The industry claims it will meet its commitments by 1 July, but the US report criticises it for reneging on targets. Campaigners argue fair and stable prices would lift hundreds of thousands of people out of absolute poverty and remove the main reason for child labour.

The industry claims its International Cocoa Initiative is currently working with 88 cocoa communities in Ivory Coast and 154 in Ghana. But critics point out there are more than 600,000 cocoa farms in Ivory Coast alone.

A spokeswoman for the UK chocolate industry said: "Our industry is committed to responsible cocoa growing. We cannot, however, give a guarantee that there are absolutely no circumstances of inappropriate child labour associated with cocoa growing, now or in the near future. To provide such assurances would require independent auditing of over two million cocoa farms every day of the year."

Ian Bretman of the Fairtrade Foundation said: "If companies see customers are serious about where their chocolate comes from, that's what will bring them around in the end."