Chocolate lovers in Basel, Switzerland, can be forgiven for taking a long time in the supermarket sweet aisle deciding which chocolate to buy, but thousands of miles away, smallholder farmers in Tanzania's southern highlands who work tirelessly to grow cocoa – a key ingredient in the chocolate industry – have never tasted it.

“I don’t know how it tastes, and quite honestly, I don’t even know what it looks like,” said 65-year-old Josina Mwaibale, a farmer in a remote village in Kyela district, as she cracked open a cocoa pod to scoop out its beans.

The chocolate bars on Swiss supermarket shelves are inextricably linked to the plight of farmers in this impoverished village, who struggle to make ends meet despite striking “gold”.

“I work so hard, but I don’t get much of the profit,” Mwaibale lamented.

Multibillion-dollar industry

While chocolate makers are fully aware that the multibillion-dollar industry requires a constant supply of cocoa, local farmers in Kyela do not always reap the rewards of their labor.

However, because the crop is essential in the global chocolate industry, farmers in the district are making a renewed push to boost yields to earn greater profits.

Although the $130 billion chocolate industry is dependent on smallholder farmers, the majority of them are unaware of their active role.

Mwaibale has spent years caring for a cocoa farm in the scorching sun. Despite her efforts, she only earns about 500,000 Tanzanian shillings (some $217) per year.

“The cost of living is too high. This money is not enough to sustain life,” she told Anadolu Agency.

Wafting smell

Rungwe and Kyela districts in Tanzania’s southern highlands grow 90% of the cocoa produced in the country. During the harvest season in March, visitors to the orchids are often greeted by the aroma of drying cocoa wafting in the air.

For Edson Kikwa, a 49-year-old cocoa farmer in Ntebela village in Kyela, this is one of the busiest times of the year.

Armed with a sharp machete, Kikwa briskly chops a ripe yellow pod, scooping out white pulpy beans and leaving them to dry on pieces of canvas spread out on the ground.

But Kikwa, who earns roughly 1,000,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $434) a year from the sale of his cocoa, has never tasted chocolate, either.

The cocoa industry supports around 100,000 people, most of whom live in Rungwe and Kyela districts, where farmers describe the conditions for growing it as perfect.

In Ntebela village, east of Kyela, where Kikwa lives with his wife and six children, cocoa production has helped improve the livelihoods of ordinary people by contributing more to household incomes than any other crop.

“It takes a lot of work to tend the trees and turn bitter cacao into something delicious,” Kikwa explained.

Tanzania exports about 6,500 metric tons of cocoa beans every year, earning roughly $228 million, according to government data.

Despite giving an attractive financial dividend to the nation, chocolate is not easy to find in villages in Kyela, and when it is, local farmers do not dare to buy it because it is too expensive for them.

At Ikolo village in Kyela district, Victoria Kazungu crouches over a large pile of dried cocoa. She sifts through the pods to select those of the highest quality.

Although Kazungu contributes a large share of cocoa labor on the farm, such as planting, pruning, and harvesting, she does not directly enjoy the fruits of her labor because her husband handles all financial matters.

“I don’t see it much of a problem because he’s my second half,” she remarked.

Across Ikolo village, cocoa trees spread up like weeds, sprouting up from the red-clay soil whenever the beans are dropped.

During the main cocoa season in Ikolo, which begins in early March, machete-wielding farmers pick ripe yellow pods the size of rugby balls off cocoa trees, scoop out the white pulpy beans, and place them on canvas mats to dry.

As the beans ferment and darken, the aroma of cocoa wafts through the air.

Bagged in sacks, the beans are then sold to middlemen who transport them to clearing warehouses or processing factories where they are ready to be exported.

However, for most farmers, the taste of chocolate, no matter how delicious, remains a faraway fantasy.

“I would love to eat the final product of cocoa one day,” said Kazungu./aa

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal" as Moscow's war on Ukraine is about to enter its fourth week.

"I think he is a war criminal," Biden told a reporter in an exchange.

His remarks came a day after the US Senate passed a resolution seeking to back an investigation of war crimes into the Russian president for the war in Ukraine.

Reports have repeatedly come out from Ukraine of Russian forces targeting civilian premises, including maternity hospital and a theatre in Mariupol city where people were seeking shelter from shelling.

"We consider unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric of the head of state, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world," TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Biden also authorized on Wednesday $800 million in new assistance for Ukraine to bolster its forces in the face of the ongoing war. The new aid package includes Stinger anti-aircraft systems, Javelin anti-tank missiles, light anti-armor weapons, anti-armor systems, tactical unmanned aerial systems as well as rifles and ammunition.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 726 civilians have been killed and 1,174 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

More than 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN./aa

France’s president on Tuesday denied allegations that the government had breached European sanctions by approving the export of 152 million euros ($167 million) worth of military equipment to Russia since 2015, which Moscow is now reportedly using in its war against Ukraine.

“France has complied in accordance with its commitments to international law,” Emmanuel Macron said in response to a question on whether he was okay with the fact that Paris has delivered military equipment to Russia, even as he is trying to broker a diplomatic solution to end the war.

During a visit to a reception center for refugees in the region of Maine et Loire in western France, the head of state was confronted by the media on the findings of investigative journalism outfit Disclose, which established that between 2015 and 2020, France had secretly armed Russia.

Macron said the decision on the delivery regarding the arms contracts was taken by his predecessor, Francois Hollande. Some of these contracts were suspended, as they were not consistent with international law and the situation at the time in 2014, when Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

The equipment that was delivered to Moscow consisted of small quantities and marked the end of the contract prior to the embargo, he said.

On Monday, the non-profit investigative media platform ‘Disclose’ leaked documents from the latest French Parliamentary report on arms exports, which revealed that France had issued 76 export licenses for war material to Russia since 2015. The Hollande and Macron governments delivered the arms even after the European Union imposed an arms embargo in 2014 in the wake of Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

The report by Disclose claimed that the French government took advantage of a legal loophole in the embargo and continued to carry out the obligations of the arms contract since the embargo was “not retroactive” and only applied to new contracts.

Russian military modernized with French equipment

Although President Hollande cancelled the sale of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia in 2015 under pressure from European countries and the US, the French government in the following years decided to pursue the delivery under the arms contracts, which were signed before the embargo.

“At no point did the French government raise any doubts over the potential use that could be made of them,” the report said, concluding that by continuing arms deliveries until 2019, “it is possible France handed one further military advantage to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”

It corroborated this claim by identifying certain supplies to the Russian army by French defense giants Safran and Thales, which were the main beneficiaries of these contracts. The French government has major stakes in the two aerospace and defense companies.

These include state-of-the-art navigation systems for 60 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, 55 thermal cameras for Russian tanks, 800 Catherine XP thermal imaging cameras with night vision to identify human targets manufactured by Thales, Matis thermal cameras for tanks, and infrared imaging systems for the Ka-52 helicopters produced by Safran.

While most of these pieces of equipment are not lethal, they are meant for modernizing the Russian military and could be already used in the Ukraine war. Military experts have detected the use of this French state-of-the-art equipment on combat planes and tanks by the Russian armed forces in its bombing campaigns and making advancements towards the capital Kyiv.​​​​​​​/agencies

A hillside collapsed in northern Peru on Tuesday, burying at least 60 homes with people inside, authorities said.

Six people have been reported missing so far after the landslide, which was caused by heavy rains in the area, buried multiple homes at 8:30 a.m. local time in the Andean village of Retamas in the La Libertad region.

​​"The landslide of the hill has covered approximately 60 to 80 houses. They have been completely buried,” said La Libertad Governor Manuel Llempen.

Videos posted on social media capture the moment the ground falls from a cliff over the village below and people desperately trying to free those trapped inside their homes.

The number of those missing could rise, said Retamas police commissioner Carlos Alberto Valderrama.

"The same people of the area, out of desperation to save their relatives, began to cut a hole in the interior of the Retamas municipal market. So far, four people have been rescued," he said, adding 100 people have been evacuated from their homes.

​​Several people trapped inside their homes were rescued by neighbors who made holes in walls and roofs to reach those inside, local media reported. Rescuers are still searching for survivors.

The incident ​​took place in an area where the company Consorcio Minero Horizonte carries out mining activities. The company said it has made its equipment available to assist in the rescue of those who may have been trapped.

According to the company, the landslide is not related to the mining activities it carries out but the result of heavy rains in the area that have caused similar landslides in previous days.

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said authorities were coordinating actions to address the emergency.

“We will provide all necessary assistance to the affected families,” Castillo said on Twitter./agencies