In 2020, the FLA’s due diligence included a baseline assessment and mapping of the Nestlé cocoa supply chain in Cameroon. The assessment informed FLA recommendations that resulted in an action plan that the company developed with its Tier 1 Supplier during 2020-2021. The action plan is being released in conjunction with this report.
Cocoa plays an important role in Cameroon’s economic growth and development as the country’s main cash crop. Nestlé procures cocoa from Cameroon through Tier 1 suppliers. The Tier 1 supplier assessed for this report is one of the country’s three largest cocoa buyers, trading 27 percent of cocoa in Cameroon. Cocoa is mostly sold in a free market (supply and demand) system in Cameroon with farmers choosing to supply to any buyer/company. At the time of the FLA visit, Nestlé and its Tier 1 supplier has established full traceability to 2,368 farmers clustered in 12 cooperatives from which Nestlé sources. At the time, the supplier was in the initial stages of setting up a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) with support from the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).
The objective of this mapping exercise was to highlight gaps in the internal management systems and labor issues in the cocoa production in Cameroon and evaluate and make recommendations on the CLMRS roll-out. To collect information on the working conditions and child labor in the communities, the FLA team visited three cooperatives and six cocoa producing communities supplying to those cooperatives. The team interviewed 106 people including the supplier staff, cooperative staff, community leaders, workers, and 49 farmers.