The Swiss multinational Nesté says from now on it will give extra wages to cocoa farmers who send their children to school. In this way, the company behind chocolate products such as KitKat and Smarties wants to tackle child labour.
Despite numerous previous initiatives by chocolate multinationals, child labor is still a widespread problem in cocoa-growing countries. Companies like Nestlé are under growing pressure from consumers, investors and national governments to come up with a solution.
480 euros per year
The Swiss food group now claims to tackle the problem at the root. Cocoa farmers receive up to 480 euros per year if they oblige their children to attend education instead of having them work on the plantation. According to the company, that is about a quarter of the annual income of these farmers.
In addition, farmers also have to plant other vegetation to make it more sustainable. In addition, they also have to grow other crops or keep livestock so that they become less dependent on cocoa. A third party is engaged to check whether the requirements are actually met.
‘All cocoa beans will soon be traceable’
After two years, farmers will receive half of the original annual amount if they meet the requirements. In total, the food company is earmarking 1.25 billion euros for the plan up to and including 2030.
Through the new program, Nestlé wants to be able to trace 100 percent of its cocoa back to specific farmers within three years. Currently, according to the company, this is the case for roughly half of all cocoa beans.
No guarantee on fair wages
Aid organizations and unions call the plan a major step forward. Yet it is still no guarantee that farmers receive a fair wage for their goods, states the worldwide umbrella organization VOICE. According to the interest group, cocoa farmers remain vulnerable to global price drops.
About 45 percent of children in farming families in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where the world’s largest cocoa production is by far, work instead of going to school. Researchers from the University of Chicago recently concluded this. Children who occasionally work before or after school on the plantation are not officially regarded as child labour.
Last year, a number of chocolate multinationals, including Nestlé, were charged in the US with complicity in child labor. A group of African children claim that they have performed slave labor on cocoa plantations for years. The US Supreme Court eventually dropped the lawsuit, because the child labor had not been performed in the US.
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