Has a large chocolate manufacturer admitted using child slave labour?
August 26, 2009
Well we all knew it was coming, but who would have thought it would come with such inferred admissions?
The headline reads “Cadbury to drop cocoa made with child labour” - TVNZ, Aug 26 2009. http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/cadbury-drop-cocoa-made-child-labour-2946609 (which, on it’s own is a misleading headline – But I’ll address that later…) Can we then assume that for the last 100 years of so they have been? One could quite possibly assume so.
It’s a well known fact that a large proportion of cocoa comes from West Africa, a country where slave trading (In both women and children) is rife, and while excellent work from organisiations like Stop the Traffik (http://www.stopthetraffik.org) has helped fight and bring attention to despicable trade, it is still abhorrent that in 2009 we are still faced with child slavery every day.
Pure greed has driven large corporates, to source the cheapest raw ingredients to produce the cheapest product to enable them to buy market share, and what’s cheaper than paying workers nothing?
Enter the age of the educated consumer and these large corporates are now trying to use PR spin, half truths and giving with one hand while exploiting with 3 others. One should always view with skepticism, any announcement from a large corporate that proclaims to be introducing an ethical line as in the story above.
The truth behind the above TVNZ story it that it will only be the Dairy Milk that will be Fairtrade certified. One would then assume that the rest of the products will still be using exploitative African child labour
The underlining fact is that at a high corporate level a decision is made to make more sales, at this stage the sourcing department is told to bring ingredients in that will save the Company x amount.
It is very visible in Australian manufacturing where the costs of labour is so high, at least that is the reason we are told. Personally I know Companies that have swapped ingredients in products for cheaper ones that do not even mix or taste the same as its original formula, and without the owner’s permission, so that the blender got more profits. The result of all this is an epidemic in Australian Companies and it is “Greed” it IS possible to have a good product using Natural ingredients and having enough profit for all parties. There are examples I could show where we have managed to bring our manufacturing/ingredient sourcing prices down to nearly the same as Malaysia using the same ingredients. There is no need for having to use slave labour or artificial sweeteners etc, a lot of the problems here is about been production time effective, ( Time management) in Australia we have probably around a 50/60% capacity and the rest of the time machinery and labour is sitting around doing nothing. If that production time was lifted they would have more business and could lower their profits to enable manufacturers to NOT have to go overseas to manufacture. The word GREED shows up again, Companies would rather reap more profit from fewer people than get Australia/New Zealand back into exporting the great products and ingredients available here.
We have in Australia some of the World’s best products been imported especially from Europe where most of the costs are higher than Australia and then the normal ridicules import duties, yet they can compete and sell cheaper than locally produced products. I am a firm believe that if the mining and selling out of the ground comes to a halt then so will the Country.
Do Companies really care about where and who makes their products, I`m sure not at the level of some of them like Cadbury/Pepsi Coke and the pharma industry. When you talk to these Companies you are not talking to the head only the shoulders or arms and they don`t have the ability or power to make change. And when there is a changing of the guard it is usually internal. So the story stays the same.
Making people conscious of the issues through having a network like Fair trade and others is so important, but also is the fact you can use overseas growers or supplies and make an effort to maintain integrity, loyalty and openness to those that help support us.
Sorry I have a focus on these sorts of issues opinion maybe bit long. Regards Karl longley
Great site…keep up the good work.
Excellent site, keep up the good work
Excellent site, keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read…
-Bill-Bartmann
This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read…:)
-Bill-Bartmann