Nestlé’s child labor prevention system in its Cocoa Plan will cover around half of the company’s supply by 2020, but full scale up may never be possible, says its public affairs director.
Nestlé Cocoa Plan has come out top in a report by Stop the Traffik and Baptist World Aid Australia assessing the progress made by chocolate companies and certification organizations in tackling child labor in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
The cocoa and chocolate industry acknowledges it must do more to combat cocoa child labor after the number of kids working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire rises 18%, a report from Tulane University shows.
A US court has refused to dismiss a civil case against Hershey alleging complicity in illegal child labor and human trafficking on cocoa farms in West Africa.
Nestle has become the first food company to allow the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate whether children are working on cocoa farms supplying its factories as the company said that it would almost certainly be the case.
Hershey lags behind its competitors when it comes to purchasing cocoa that has been certified to meet certain labour, social, and environmental standards, argues four non-governmental organisations in a highly critical report about the US confectionery...
Retention of Ghana produced cocoa on the US Department of Labor’s list of goods produced by child or forced labour could hinder efforts to eliminate the practice, claims a senior politician of the major cocoa supplying country.
Labour watchdog International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) recognises Mars' recent road map for sustainability as “an important step forward” but claims the chocolate behemoth needs to push further into Fairtrade certification.
