Nestle addresses child labour

29 June 2012 – Nestlé and its partners will involve communities in Côte d’Ivoire in a new effort to prevent the use of child labour in cocoa growing areas.

The initiative is part of an action plan drawn up by Nestlé in response to a report on the company’s cocoa supply chain in the West African country by the Fair Labor Association (FLA).

“The use of child labour in our cocoa supply chain goes against everything we stand for. As the FLA report makes clear, no company sourcing cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire can guarantee that it doesn’t happen, but what we can say is that tackling child labour is a top priority for our company,” says José Lopez, Nestlé’s executive vice president for operations.

The FLA concluded that, with some adjustments and improvements, the Nestlé Cocoa Plan can become a well-rounded developmental programme.

The plan, along with the other initiatives Nestlé participates in, provides the building blocks for a more robust and deep reaching effort, the FLA experts say in their report.

They found that child labour is a reality on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and has its roots in a combination of factors including poverty and the socio-economic situation of the farmers and their families.

The report says an effective strategy to eliminate the problem must start by tackling the attitudes and perceptions of those in the cocoa supply chain and the communities in which they live.

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