The Times - UK (2022-04-04)

20 Monday April 4 2022 | the times

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Cadbury is facing claims that it is
profiting from child labour
after reports that children
as young as ten have been
working on cocoa farms
that supply the
confectioner.
An investigation
concluded that child-
ren in Ghana who
ought to have been in
school were perform-
ing illegal work with
machetes and knives. The
farms belong to Cadbury’s

PETER JOLLY/NORTHPIX

Child labour exposé piles pressure on Cadbury

Cocoa Life programme, which is partly

aimed at eradicating child labour from

its supply chain.

The alleged use of child

labour was uncovered by

Channel 4’s Dispatches

programme. Posing as

climate change re-

searchers, reporters

were told that child-

ren were being re-

moved from their

families and stopped

from going to school in

order to work on cocoa farms. Workers

on the Cocoa Life farms said they were

earning less than £2 a day, leaving them

struggling to provide for their families

and therefore reliant on child labour.

Laws in Ghana prevent the employ-

ment of children under the age of 13,

while work deemed “hazardous” has to

be done by employees aged over 18.

Footage from two farms to be broad-

cast tonight on Cadbury Exposed: Dis-

patches appears to show children using

machetes to weed parts of plantations.

Others are seen swinging sticks with

knives on the end as well as using sharp

blades to open cocoa pods. The ten-

year-old daughter of one cocoa employ-

ee who was working on a farm was bit-

ten by a poisonous snake, while his

other child was injured by a machete.

Cadbury is owned by the US firm

Mondelez International, which paid

out £3 billion to shareholders last year.

The green Cocoa Life emblem is dis-

played on products such as Cadbury

Dairy Milk and is said to prove that the

cocoa is sourced sustainably. Cocoa

Life was created in 2012 and says that

one of the key pillarsof the programme

is to prevent child labour. Its website

adds: “At Cocoa Life, we believe the

work of children is education and play.”

Cocoa Life says 69,114 farmers partic-

ipate in the programme in Ghana.

Leading chocolate companies first

promised to eradicate child labour from

supply chains more than 20 years ago.

Ayn Riggs, founder of Slave Free

Chocolate, said: “Mondelez last year

made $4 billion in profit. If we choose

not to buy Cadbury products, that mes-

sage will go straight to the CEO.”

A spokesman for Mondelez said: “We

are deeply concerned. We explicitly

prohibit child labour and have been

working relentlessly to take a stand

against this, making significant efforts

through our Cocoa Life programme to

improve the protection of children in

the communities where we source

cocoa, including in Ghana.”

Mario Ledwith

Balancing act Max Koronka, 27, of Aberdeen, at Lecht ski centre in the Cairngorms.

Scottish resorts, which have had a poor season, are welcoming the return of snow

Footage appears to show

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