McLEAN, VA — Virginia-based Mars Inc. is accused of using children in Ghana as young as 5 years old to harvest cocoa used in some of the company’s most beloved chocolate bars, according to a CBS News investigation.
According to the CBS News report, reporters found children on Africa’s Ivory Coast using machetes to harvest cocoa beans while working in the blistering heat, despite the company’s promise to eliminate child labor in its supply chain by 2025.
CBS News launched its investigation after a whistleblower provided lists of childrens’ names — children Mars claimed were in school and no longer worked on cocoa plantations. That’s not the case, field supervisors told the network, adding they regularly lied on paperwork and claimed Mars never tried to verify the information.
Mars Inc., headquartered in McLean, is a global company with numerous brands, including Snickers, Dove, M&Ms and Skittles.
Jacqueline Mars, co-owner of Mars and heir to the candy maker fortune, regularly tops the Forbes World’s Billionaires List. As of 2023, Jacqueline Mars has a net worth of approximately $37.1 billion.
Africa’s Ivory Coast produces about 45 percent of the global cocoa supply, a core ingredient in chocolate, according to a Guardian report. The production of cocoa in West Africa has long been linked to human rights abuses, structural poverty, low pay and child labor.
In 2021, eight former child slaves who said they were forced to work without pay on cocoa plantations filed a lawsuit against Mars and several other companies, accusing them of illegally enslaving thousands of children, the Guardian reported.
The lawsuit also accused companies of actively misleading the public in a voluntary promise to phase out some child labor, according to the Guardian.
Mars and other companies have pledged for years to eliminate or reduce their reliance on child labor. According to multiple reports, Mars set a 2025 deadline to end child labor in its supply chain.
In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson for Mars said that 65 percent of its West African cocoa supply chain has achieved compliance, adding the company is investigating the claims in the CBS News report.
“Mars unequivocally condemns the use of child labor. It has no place in our supply chain, and we are fully committed to helping to eradicate it,” the company said in a statement to CNBC.
Source link : https://patch.com/virginia/mclean/va-candy-maker-used-kids-young-5-harvest-cocoa-report
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Publish date : 2023-12-01 08:00:00
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