NFS Welcomes Hershey’s New Commitment to Improve Supply Chains
Not For Sale welcomes the news that the Hershey company has pledged $10 million to educate West African cocoa farmers on improving their trade and combating child labor.
The leading US chocolate producer has announced it will release a new version of Hershey’s Bliss brand, which will be 100% made from Rain Forest Alliance-certified farms mostly in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Chocolate is one of the most well-known industries using forced and child labor, yet up until now Hershey has refused to use fair trade certified cocoa.
The West African region in particular is home to about 70% percent of the world’s cocoa but has also been identified as having very high instances of modern-day slavery.
News of Hershey’s commitment, which will see the money distributed over five years, is a major first step in the right direction as the company is finally acknowledging its responsibility, and is aware of the importance of improving its supply chains.
Not For Sale has been a big supporter of the Raise the Bar campaign, organized by Green America, Global Exchange, IRLF, and Oasis USA. Not For Sale demonstrated this support by advocating its own chocolate campaign and encouraging abolitionists within its network to host a screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate, sell fair trade chocolate at the screening, and collect signatures to petition Hershey to use fair trade certified cocoa. The organization collected thousands of signatures and distributed more than 1,000 copies of the documentary.
Hershey currently has a D+ on Free2Work, the consumer resource aimed at increasing transparency in supply chains. This new commitment is likely to see the company’s grade on Free2Work improve over time as it is the first time it will use an independent, third -party certification system to ensure that its cocoa is grown sustainably, including the monitoring of forced and child labor.
Not For Sale will continue to support Raise the Bar and put pressure on chocolate companies to enforce policies and procedures that will protect vulnerable communities and children from forced labor.
