শনিবার, ৫ মে, ২০১২

Ferrero sets date to end cocoa slavery


April 20th, 2012
12:26 PM ET
Share
Comments (52 comments)
Permalink

Ferrero sets date to end cocoa slavery

Chocolate maker Ferrero has pledged to eradicate slavery from farms where it sources its cocoa by 2020, as part of a growing movement by the multi-billion dollar industry to clean up its supply chains.
The Italian company, which produces Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella spread and Kinder eggs, follows Nestle and Hershey as the third major chocolate manufacturer to announce new anti-slavery moves since September.
It says it will eradicate child labor and forced adult labor from cocoa plantations it uses by 2020, verified by “independent and credible” third parties. Also, it says it will publish a more detailed progress report this summer and promises improved communication to customers.
Up to 75% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in small farms in West Africa. In the Ivory Coast alone, there are an estimated 200,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create chocolate enjoyed around the world. Many of the children don’t even know what chocolate is.
In January, CNN highlighted the plight of the child labor in the Ivory Coast in a documentary, “Chocolate’s Child Slaves”, by correspondent David McKenzie.
A statement from Ferrero said its new goals were made “in the light of the need for transparency in the cocoa sector.”
The industry’s regulation over cocoa farms is largely self-regulated. Critics say progress is too slow.
NGO Stop the Traffik, which worked with CNN on its documentary, welcomed Ferrero’s move as a “sweet deal” for children doing “back-breaking work”. 
“Ferrero is the first global chocolate company to explicitly state they will fulfill the promise the chocolate industry made collectively in 2001 to eliminate the trafficking of children in their supply chain. Together with Mars, who have promised 100% certified chocolate by 2020, Ferrero is the only other chocolate company to have made comprehensive commitments towards their entiry cocoa supply chain.
“This individual acceptance of responsibility, coupled with a commitment to report on progress each year, should be an example to the other major chocolate companies, such as Nestlé, Kraft/Cadbury, and Hershey’s, to follow suit.”
The London-based NGO called on Ferrero to put labels on wrappers of its products so customers would know they were untainted by slavery.
A statement added: “2020 is still a long way away, and Stop the Traffik will be monitoring Ferrero’s progress.”
More than 10 years ago, two U.S. lawmakers took action to stop child labor in the industry. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, was signed into law on September 19, 2001.
But manufacturers raised concerns and a compromise was reached that required chocolate companies to voluntarily certify they were stopping the practice of child labor. The certification process would not involve labeling products "child-labor-free," as initially proposed.
Topics: Chocolate’s Child Slaves • In The News • Uncategorized
Next entry »
« Previous entry
soundoff (52 Responses)
  1. ummmyea
    My jaw is still on the floor.
    April 20, 2012 at 3:23 pm | Reply
    • Johnnie99
      2020? Seriously?
      April 20, 2012 at 11:15 pm | Reply
      • rickirs
        Yes, seriously why not tomorrow at noon? What is the problem that takes 8 years to stop use of slave labor? The US had a civil war over slavery that lasted only 4 years. All that is needed here is a corporate decision by its majority stockholders to stop.
        April 21, 2012 at 10:30 pm |
    • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, B.A., J.D., S.P.J.
      So the United States is wasting its time looking for Mr. Kony, while the Hershey Company of Hershey Pennsylvania and Nestle of Switzerland, the place that the Third Reich used to store gold bricks made from the tooth fillings of gassed Jews, enslaves and tortures 200,000 children at known locations until 2020. Perhaps we should bomb the guard shacks at those plantations, and arrest the management of Hershey for war crimes!
      May 2, 2012 at 7:16 am | Reply
  2. Klas
    Isn't is sad that it always takes a ridiculous number of years for companies to do anything decent whereas if it bit into their profits they'd implement change immediately?
    People are sheep and fall for the lies...sad!
    April 20, 2012 at 3:24 pm | Reply
    • Levend
      Companies only do it because it can mean a loss of income if they don't. Otherwise they wouldn't have allowed it to start with.
      April 21, 2012 at 4:44 am | Reply
      • Becky
        Will corporations abandon the farms they have exploited and depleted? Trafficking exists because of poverty. We cannot allow corportations to abandon the Ivory Coast and invest in farms in new regions. Corporations owe it to the people they have exploited to facilitate the changes and pay a fair premium for the cocoa. Consumers can put pressure to speed the process of change by buying chocolate that carries a fair trade or rainforest alliance seal. But we also need to write corporations and tell them abandoning the Ivory Coast will be unacceptable.
        April 24, 2012 at 7:34 am |
  3. SoBeChris
    Just one more proof that corporations will take what they can get away with in order to make a profit...and damned be any social norms or moral obligation. And all those tea party types and neocons want is to have less government regulation....as if the "free market" will solve everything. The fact this issue was brought up in legislation TEN years ago says a lot....it says they only care when they are put in the public spotlight.
    April 20, 2012 at 3:27 pm | Reply
    • Alex
      Alas, and it is the free market, not the regulation that is forcing the changes! It is the responsibility of the people to make sure the free market works for them, just as it is the responsibility of the people to make sure government does as well. At the end of the day, big gov or small gov, free market, or command economy; it all comes down to the intelligence of the people. I don't have much hope that partisan idiots like you will do much to help solve our problems.
      April 21, 2012 at 12:37 am | Reply
      • markodavid
        I do not know what you call a free market but I am61 years old and have never seen a real free market in my life.You are the idiot.
        May 2, 2012 at 9:38 am |
  4. wovoka
    2020?
    That seems like a rather aggressive timeline to stop using cocoa from farms that admit to using slavery.
    They should give themselves a few more years just to be on the safe side.
    April 20, 2012 at 3:32 pm | Reply
    • Ryan
      It's not about farms that admit they use slavery. Auditing your supply chain for child labor is not an easy thing when you are buying from hundreds of farms across the world or even several hundred middle men distributes. Not as easy as calling them up, "Are you guys using slave labor – if you answer yes we will stop buying from you?" "Oh, um, well, I guess no" "Oh, great we checked you off as 'slavery free' so we can put it on our wrappers, lots of calls to make today, bye bye."
      April 21, 2012 at 7:58 am | Reply
      • MrLubosh
        Maybe it is just as simple/easy as you said: Hey, I am calling from FERRERO and if you use child labor we will not buy from you any more. Did you understand? Good. Whould you like me to place another order or do you need more time to match our policy?
        April 22, 2012 at 11:37 am |
  5. Tex71
    The ONLY reason corporations will have any consideration at all for the victims of injustice, slavery, suffering, torture, and death is when it cuts into their profits, either from government regulation or from popular outcry (which in a democracy, after all, amount to the same thing by different means). Corporations do not feel sorry for child slaves. Corporations are NOT people, no matter how many times Mitt Romney says they are. People elect people to keep corporations from enslaving people for profit. Vote accordingly.
    April 20, 2012 at 3:58 pm | Reply
    • Alex
      Lol, so the free market succeeds in getting corporations to do the right thing, but we should vote for more government anyway? You are a total idiot. Many chocolate companies are not even US-based, and even if they all were, the US government would have an incredibly hard time trying to mandate labor practices in countries in which it has no jurisdiction. What are they going to do, ban 75% of the global chocolate market from US shores? Good luck with that...
      April 21, 2012 at 12:41 am | Reply
    • Coflyboy
      I am surprised the right hasn't blamed Obama for child slavery in Africa yet.
      April 24, 2012 at 5:07 pm | Reply
  6. reyes
    2012???? That is like saying..."OK, we pledge to keep using child labor and slaves only for the next 8 years" ! What am I missing???
    April 20, 2012 at 4:03 pm | Reply
    • Dan
      Reyes - While I agree that strong efforts should be made to eliminate the "worst forms of child labor" in Ivory Coast and Ghana, let's not simplify the problem. Too much emphasis is incorrectly put on "child slavery", when in fact the slavery aspect is not as large as has been indicated by BBC and CNN. In Ghana very little child slavery exists in cocoa and much progress has been made since 2001. Thousands of family owned small farms in Ghana produce cocoa, and children do meaningful "child work" in the fields. They still go to school, have comparatively good childhoods and meaningful lives. Yes, put pressure on the companies, have independent verification of efforts but don't mislead the American public into believe that child slavery is ramant on the cocoa farms. While child labor in cocoa in the Ivory Coast is worse than in Ghana, care must be taken not to remove all child labor from the farms. The children would go into worse forms of child labor, or real child slavery, in the local gold mines, fishing and quarries. I also understand that China has indicated that if the restictions get too much from the U.S. and others, it is prepared to purchase the entire cocoa crop in West Africa, without any child labor considerations, and then sell it to who ever wants to purchase it. Yes, get consumers involved, be tough, set goals but don't mislead the public.
      DAN
      April 21, 2012 at 2:11 pm | Reply
  7. Tex71
    It is, I believe, significant that slavery in 2012 is not generally perpetrated by individuals upon other individuals, nor by governments upon their citizenry, but by corporations upon laborers.
    April 20, 2012 at 4:54 pm | Reply
  8. NOMORE
    How about we STOP BUYING THEIR CHOCOLATES NOW!!! And see how long it realy takes them to this!!! Or Even better, lets send the top management kids to "chocolate camp" for half a summer and see how it goes!!
    April 20, 2012 at 5:08 pm | Reply
  9. mundotrekker
    i am sick to my stomach reading this article on slavery in the year 2012! we are in 2012! how IS this happening??
    i am seriously boycotting all of these brands. i am sickened and saddened that it will take Ferrero 8 years to "eradicate child labor and forced adult labor "
    here's a solution: why don't these chocolate conglomerates simply stop processing plants in West Africa and the Ivory Coast and take their business elsewhere? To a nation that doesn't employ the archaic and ruthless standards.
    April 20, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Reply
    • cpc65
      WE are in 2012. Much of the rest of the world is NOT.
      April 20, 2012 at 5:51 pm | Reply
    • Alex
      I wonder how many of you don't get that these kids will probably starve, be slaves in another industry, or be forced into a life of crime if they can't work the land (as miserable an existence as that may be). These kids' second options are not "go to America and go to school". They are subsistence farming, slavery in some other industry, crime, war. This is a problem that only the West African nations can fix, multinationals and/or Western governments can't do very much. Truth.
      April 21, 2012 at 12:45 am | Reply
      • Bram
        Yeah, it's not like these poor multinational companies can afford to pay decent wages and actually invest in local development. Their products would probably cost a few percent more if they did that. I m sure not paying a cent extra for my deluxe candy bar, so some kid in far away africa can have some protein on the menu. After all it' s their problem and they should solve it.
        April 21, 2012 at 4:00 am |
    • Becky
      It is a mistake to blame and punish all the cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast. The chocolate industry has manipulated prices for years and farmers are caught in a cycle of poverty and debt earning less than $2 per day. The industry has created poverty and the result has been terrible labor practices. We need to buy chocolate with a fair trade seal, boycott those who don't have a seal certifying fair trade practices. But we also need to make sure chocolate corporations invest in replenishing soil, diseased trees, sustainable practices in The Ivory Coast. Even if it would be less costly to simply invest in new farms in Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. They created this mess and we can't allow them to simply use those 8 years to create new farms else where and work that new population to death and ruin another set of rainforests.
      April 24, 2012 at 8:04 am | Reply
  10. cpc65
    They've confiscated the Keebler Elves' whips and knuckle dusters.
    April 20, 2012 at 5:51 pm | Reply
  11. herbivore
    8 more years? It takes them 8 more years to implement their ban. 8? 2020? Oh, right, Now I understand. They need 8 more years of massive profits before they start paying real wages. Simple solution- stop buying chocolate from these leeches.
    April 20, 2012 at 11:09 pm | Reply
    • Alex
      I will buy extra Ferrero tomorrow so one of the slave kids is not killed as he won't be needed anymore. ;)
      Ferrero does not pay the wages, they only buy the chocolate. Are you seriously proposing that chocolate multinationals buy out the tens of thousands of small cocoa farms in West Africa? Do you know how stupid you sound?
      April 21, 2012 at 12:49 am | Reply
  12. Chuck
    I agree with the guy that said their timeline is little too soon maybe they should add a couple of years. I also agree with the person who said we should boycott all their products then they can take as long as they want because they wont have a market for their product scxxwem
    April 20, 2012 at 11:11 pm | Reply
  13. ilan
    good job Ferrero
    April 21, 2012 at 12:38 am | Reply
  14. juryportfolio
    does that mean business as usual? maybe we should boycott their products until 2020 then.
    April 21, 2012 at 1:01 am | Reply
  15. Sporto
    SLO Tribune=WORST PAPER EVER
    April 21, 2012 at 3:52 am | Reply
  16. Stephan
    This Alex guy is part of the problem – he is quick to call liberal people "stupid", yet as a seemingly conservative ("Big Government" is stuck in their heads) he does not understand what large corporations are doing to the developing world. I have worked for a US multinational company here in South Africa for almost 10 years, and I can tell you they do not care a damn for the locals in Africa. The social problems in the Third World can only be solved through eradication of poverty, yet I see on a daily basis that the same corporations continue to exploit the people, instead of empowering them.
    April 21, 2012 at 7:34 am | Reply
  17. Ryan
    Child labor is a tricky word. I know there are lots of cases of ugly abusive practice, but in the context of a US family farm, a young lad getting up at 5am to feed the chickens is a positive image to most in the US, but that practice would eliminate you from being a supplier of certain companies. . . .
    April 21, 2012 at 8:00 am | Reply
  18. john
    This is such BS. They promised to end things in 2001. Now, it's 2012, and they say they'll do it in 2020? I don' tthink so.
    Consumers should boycott uncertified chocolate. That would clean the mess up in 6 months. Think about the child slavery the next time you bite into something from any of these companies, then go get you chocolate somewhere else.
    April 21, 2012 at 4:22 pm | Reply
  19. PEDRO
    When it rain's those are tears from heaven!
    What is wrong with us?
    Why is it so hard for us to do the right thing?
    How much time do we need to change?
    Forgive! us!! for we know what we do! We just love money more than anything else!
    April 21, 2012 at 8:04 pm | Reply
  20. Weimo
    CNN just give the reward to Ferrero by posting this article. Anyone and for sure CNN ought to know that the Ferrero announcement is a hollow phrase. Ferrero got what it was looking for and that is free publicity of their company name. There is no need to have a university degree to understand that this is a hollow commitment with one goal only to get free publicity. Multinationals are very skilled in abusing the deprived people for their own benefit, how could you possibly turn a company in a multinational if you don't or haven't. So, are the workers of CNN so gullible that they give presents to multinationals or are there other interests involved beyond my scope.
    April 21, 2012 at 10:08 pm | Reply
  21. Mike Irvine
    This is unbelievable; the company is agreeing to child slavery for eight more years. Vote with your wallet – dont' buy anything from this company again. I won't and I will tell everybody not to.
    April 21, 2012 at 11:37 pm | Reply
  22. kevin
    As long as administrations like the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations treat this issue as a joke these companies will continue doing this. Ask yourself this, what has the Obama Administration really done? Create an anti-trafficking month? That is about as big a joke as it gets. Since globalization, the three administrations have had to deal with the problem and all three have been terrible. The Obama administration the worst, because they pretend they are doing something.
    I don't blame this company either. A single company can't change anything. This is for government officials with real resources, and this administration has spent quite a bit of money and very very little has gone to fighting trafficking.
    April 22, 2012 at 9:10 am | Reply
  23. MrLubosh
    2020???? What a family legacy, right? You guys need to have a serious talk up there! WHY NOT NOW?
    April 22, 2012 at 11:35 am | Reply
  24. Thea N
    Well – I won't be buying any of their products for the next 8 years......
    April 22, 2012 at 3:18 pm | Reply
  25. Antonio Carlos V.Braga
    All right, but will they pay fair prices for the cocoa?
    April 22, 2012 at 11:41 pm | Reply
  26. Becky
    My fear is that these companies are buying time to invest in new farms in new regions. The farmers of the Ivory Coast have been so badly exploited (earning less than $2/day) that they have had no income to reinvest in their farms or hire adult workers. The soil is depleted, the cocoa trees are aged beyond their productive years, farmers are ill and debilitated from unprotected pesticide use and back breaking work; and now cocoa productivity per hectare in the Ivory Coast is the lowest in the world. The real problem is poverty caused by corporate refusal to pay fair premiums for the cocoa. Are they simply planning to repeat this awful cycle in a new region? We owe it to the people of the Ivory Coast to insist that these companies invest in helping Ivorian farmers rehabilitate their farms and establish certification systems that will regulate labor practices. Hershy's promise of $10 million is merely window dressing. Please CNN look into how corporate "aid" to cocoa farmers is really being spent and whether or not they are positioning themselves to abandon the people they have exploited and earned billions from. And please, fellow consumers, buy fair trade certified chocolate and write to corporations and let them know abandoning the Ivory Coast is unacceptable. No excuses. We will not allow them to blame government unrest, climate change, or even us for demanding slave free chocolate. We want slave free, fairly traded chocolate from the Ivory Coast so that the people of that country can heal and live in dignity.
    April 24, 2012 at 8:27 am | Reply
  27. Coflyboy
    Really?? Eight years?? Forget waiting for companies to decide upon their actions. There is plenty of VERY GOOD "fair trade" chocolate available at alternative supermarkets like Whole Foods, etc. If you want chocolate, buying responsibly is part of the solution.
    April 24, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Reply
  28. brklynese
    Eight years...why not make it 80 so you can really screw with the public. No more Ferrero and I'll be using this in my MBA ethics/ CSR class.
    April 25, 2012 at 11:00 pm | Reply
    • Anna
      Thats so funny you say that, I am also getting MBA and sent this to my Business Law & Ethics professor! We just studied slavery and discussed the chocolate industry.
      May 2, 2012 at 1:15 pm | Reply
  29. OBAMAIS OSAMA
    2001 WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING(Twin Towers) AND VIOLENT WORLD OF LIES OR PSYCHIATRY REVEALED ENTIERLY !!! EXACTLY PER WHO, HOW, AND WHY !! FACTS ABOUT REAL OSAMA BIN LADEN WHO IS IN FACT TERRORIST BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA !!!
    INDISPUTABLE FACTS(truth) ABOUT TERRORIST ALEX JONES(Ron Paul) & TERRORIST MARK POTOK (the two criminal masterminds who orchestrated nad created 911 on behalf of self elected governments – worldwide for the sake of NAZI witch hunting/scapegoating – Breivik explained).
    From foreign wars, human experimentation, and mkultra procedures(related even to state workforce/employment) agencies !!! Exactly what 911 was used for – prior and after !!!
    NOT HUMAN RIGHTS COURTS OR ORGANIZATIONS, BUT ORGANIZERS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITES AND SPONSORS OF BOGUS "MULTICULTURALISM" $$$ CLAIMS AT EXPENSE OF PERSECUTED WHITES !!! ALL THANKS TO FREE PRESS/MEDIA(most severe CENSORSHIP OF GENOCIDE in entire history ) !!
    See first Video 81
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqc97z
    Video 82
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqc9d2
    Video 83 – THE TRUTH ABOUT ZIONIST WAR DECLARATION ON WHITE RACE – WORLDWIDE(1998 trip to Washington revealed, mkultra abductions to local employment agency) !!!
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqdwbs can also be seen at (https://vimeo.com/41052839 or http://www.zideo.nl/playzideo/6c4961616e316873) !!!
    Video 84 – Well anticipated sicret service revealed(plot).
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqctnn
    For immediate contacts or ORIGINAL LINK, please use http://www.facebook.com/people/Loki-Nagrind/100001962176474
    Thank you
    April 26, 2012 at 7:31 pm | Reply
  30. Tom
    Is there a difference between slavery in the Ivory Coast and slavery in China? I don't shop at Walmart do you? Tell the truth someone is spending American dollars there.
    April 28, 2012 at 4:24 pm | Reply
  31. Dan
    Gee! 2020! Are you sure that's not too soon? Amazing that they would commit to such an early date. Yea, we're gonna end child slavery, but not just yet. The CO's of these companies should be put to work along side of the child slaves till 2020. That would be right. Personally, I don't eat chocolate because of the child slavery issue and I feel that more folks should quit buying the chocolate from the companies mentioned above.
    May 1, 2012 at 11:30 am | Reply
  32. Eva
    Boycott them. It is immoral to purchase things produced with child slavery, or adult slavery.
    Seriously, how can we buy Kinder Eggs (Child Surprise Eggs) for our children, knowing child slave labor was used to make them? It's so sad, I had no idea they were made like that and have bought them for my son. It makes me really sad and sick to know what's behind this.
    Consumers just have to stop buying these products, then the companies will wake up and change things now, not in 2020!
    May 4, 2012 at 2:45 pm | Reply
এর দ্বারা পোস্ট করা এই সময়ে

কোন মন্তব্য নেই:

একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন

এতে সদস্যতা: মন্তব্যগুলি পোস্ট করুন (Atom)