Slaves to Chocolate

 Singapore-based Olam International is one of three food companies being sued by Brazilian state prosecutors for allegedly failing to address labor abuses in their supply chains. The charges stem from a 2018 report by Brazil's Federal Labor Prosecution Office and the International Labor Organization that showed widespread use of child and slave labor in Brazil's cocoa industry. The 2018 report uncovered thousands of instances of child labor and found farmers were being forced to work to pay off debts to landowners.

 It has told a Brazilian court investigating child and slave labor it cannot trace its supplies and raising fears exploitation may be going unchecked.

In its statement to the court in April, Olam's lawyers said cocoa beans that were passed from farmer to middle man before being bought by the company were "not liable to tracking". Olam said 90% of its cocoa in Brazil came from "indirect suppliers" - farmers who sell their beans to middle men, who in turn sell them to Olam for processing - making it impossible to trace the beans.

"You don't know the origin, you can't control the origin," said the submission, given exclusively to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "There is no way for the buyer of the commodity to know where it came from." 

The company has previously said it is capable of tracing 100% of the cocoa that it sources directly. Olam's own website offers a guarantee that customers can buy its chocolate knowing that "it has been produced in a way that supports the most vulnerable people and environments in the supply chain".

Brazilian prosecutors say they have proof of child and slave labor in Olam's supply chain, and want the company to be made to take measures including cutting out the middle men, setting up formal contracts with farmers and organising periodic inspections for labor abuse.

Brazil defines modern slavery as debt bondage, degrading work conditions, long hours that pose a risk to a worker's health or life, or work that violates a person's dignity.

Margarete Matos de Carvalho, who is prosecuting the case, said buying from middlemen had enabled Olam to evade responsibility for abuses.

"We have abundantly proved the presence of child labor and slave labor (in Olam's supply chain), but they close their eyes to this reality, while at the same time proclaiming and trumpeting their commitment to these issues," she said.

Cocoa giant in Brazil slave labour probe 'can't trace supplies' (trust.org)