Truffle Pig Chocolates (Burnaby)
It all began over 10 years ago when I was a waitress at the Four Seasons Hotel. I was looking for change and to prove to my young children that you can do anything you put your mind to. Luckily for me, one of my customers was hiring a sales person and offered me work at his chocolate factory. Just the smell of the chocolate was all I needed to leave the hotel and start my new career. During my employment, I created the Truffle Pig brand of chocolates!
In 2007, I bought the brand and ventured out on my own. Now, many years later, my kids are most proud of the fact that I have made an ethical stand to source my ingredients transparently, directly, and sustainably.
Our products are made in Greater Vancouver from imported ingredients.
Shelley Wallace
Founder of Truffle Pig
OUR MISSION
We’re on a mission to sweeten the world with our chocolate! We proudly source our cacao directly from farmers with strong human values and pay them a premium above world market prices. Our Central American cacao is grown wildly, beyond organic, without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. We have gone above and beyond to make sure our chocolate is made as ethically and deliciously as possible!
Small cocoa farmers are underpaid and impoverished.
60% of the world’s cocoa comes from two countries in West Africa. The government there creates a fixed price for cacao that is too low for the farmers. These prices force the farmers to live in poverty and more often than not leads to child labour and slavery. This is something we cannot stand for, thus we moved to a direct trade supply chain, which enables us to pay well above world market prices.
Reliance on Fair Trade labels is simply not working.
A handful of international cocoa traders and processors purchase the cocoa beans. They are then all gathered in one pile (both certified and non-certified) because it would be “impossible” to separate the two. On its own, a certification label does not enable farmers to live above the poverty line and provide a decent income for their families. The way we see it, chocolate makers are responsible for their chocolate and their supply chain – not the certification inspector.
Sources
Please read for yourself how most chocolate is produced.
1. Report of Findings, The Global Business of Forced Labour – 2018
2. Inside Big Chocolate’s Child Labour Problem – Fortune 2016
3. Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry – FoodisPower.org
4. The Dark Side of Chocolate Documentary – 2010
5. Quick Cocoa Facts – SlaveFreeChocolate.org
6. Tony’s Chocolonely – Mission Webpage (They are a big inspiration to us!)
Above and Beyond Practices
We believe you deserve to know where your cocoa comes from; therefore we have created a completely transparent supply chain with traceable ingredients. But most importantly, we pay over world market prices so our farmers do not have to resort to slavery. Learn more about why we use direct trade.
Wildly Grown & Sustainable
Our Central American cacao is grown wildly, beyond organic, without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. We chose not to ask our farmers to organic certify their farms due to the fact that they cannot afford it. Most of our farmers own two acre parcels of land which they grow food for their family including cacao. The cacao has been on their farm for centuries.
Our Adorable Pigs
When we decided to create a truffle chocolate bar we researched where the word truffle originated from. What we learned is that truffles are a rare mushroom found in the forest. To find these unique delicacies, pigs are used because they have an innate ability to sniff out these exotic treats. Understanding that chocolate truffles and truffles have nothing in common, we decided to have a little fun and bring these two ideas together, thus creating “The Truffle Pig”.
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