THE UK Government is being urged to act after a new report exposed “hidden inequality” in the global chocolate industry, with some woman cocoa farmers earning little more than 20p a day.

The Fairtrade Foundation called on Downing Street ministers, businesses and supermarkets to join an alliance aimed at boosting the income of women.

The group used the start of this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight to highlight the pay gap which affects women and girls in the multibillion-pound chocolate industry.

It launched a She Deserves campaign, revealing that in west Africa, where 60% of the world’s cocoa is grown, the average daily wage of a woman cocoa farmer’s is just 23p In Cote d’Ivoire, despite carrying out 68% of the labour which involves planting and harvesting, hacking cocoa pods, fermenting, drying and bagging cocoa beans as well as domestic duties in the home, women have fewer rights than men, receive less money and are often landless.

The foundation pointed out that the UK chocolate industry is worth at least £4 billion a year. With citizens consuming more per person than any other European country, campaigners say the UK should be leading efforts to ensure that all cocoa farmers can earn a living income.

Despite this, most cocoa farmers continue to live in abject poverty, said the foundation, adding that the UK Government, chocolate companies and supermarkets should join the Alliance on Living Incomes in Cocoa, a new international initiative.

Louisa Cox, director of impact at the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “It takes two to grow cocoa, it’s a partnership crop that needs both the man and the woman to successfully see it through to harvest. Yet often the woman does two thirds of the work for less than a third of the income, meaning a bitter taste to the sweet treat.

“If the cocoa industry is serious about a long-term sustainable future for their business then they must truly sweeten the deal and invest more in the women behind our chocolate.”

The UK Government is being urged to combat the issue as part of efforts to meet the UN’s ambitions to end poverty by 2030 – agreed by all member states in 2015.

Cox added: “With only 10 years left, the ambitious goals and targets to end poverty, support small-scale farmers and decent work for all enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals will not be met unless urgent action is taken to support these invisible women. It’s high time we stood side by side with these invisible women and call time on the gender pay gap in chocolate.”

A series of events will be held across the UK in the next two weeks as part of Fairtrade Fortnight, with the foundation’s grassroots networks of around 1600 Fairtrade schools and towns staging storytelling events to highlight the women’s lives.

Julia Nicoara, director of public engagement at the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “Many of us don’t know the bitter truth of exploited farmers behind much of our chocolate, with women doing much more of the work for much less of the pay. This Fairtrade Fortnight we’ll be telling and hearing the stories of some of the inspirational women cocoa growers.”

Edinburgh, Manchester, York, Cardiff and Oxford will host community events that will feature speeches from two West African women cocoa farmers sharing their experiences of the industry.