Nestle Invests $45m in Cocoa

Nestle Invests $45m in Cocoa

Nestlé is spending 45 million Swiss francs ($45.13 million) a year on efforts to source cocoa sustainably, the food company said, also citing progress in reducing child labour in its West African supply chain.

The company, which has spent about 220 million francs over the past ten years on efforts to tackle child labour and deforestation in cocoa, said it aimed to have 100 per cent sustainable cocoa sourcing in its confectionary products by 2025.

Nestle’s child labour monitoring and remediation system (CLMRS), a part of its sustainably sourcing scheme, currently covers just 57% of the cocoa it sources in West Africa, where child labour is prevalent.

Coverage under the CLMRS does not mean the elimination of child labour, but means that the issue is being addressed or remedied.

“We’re proud Nestle has made this commitment but (its) a daunting challenge to go from 15 per cent (industry-wide monitoring scheme coverage in the Ivory Coast) to 100 per cent in five years,” Reuters quoted Nick Weatherill, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an organisation working with governments and industry to eliminate child labour, to have said.

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