Sucden joins the International Cocoa Initiative
The Cocoa division of Sucden has become a member of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), a leader in child protection in cocoa growing communities, to help address child and forced labor in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Sucden will act as a Contributing Partner to ICI, rolling out the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in its supply chains, driving further collaboration and sharing with respect to methods and results.
“We look forward to gaining insights from ICI on how to more effectively and efficiently implement CLMRS and forced labor monitoring in our supply chain,” said Paul Davis, head of Sucden’s global Cocoa division. “Our ability to assure customers that such monitoring is taking place in an effective manner has never been so important and we will certainly benefit from ICI’s depth of expertise.”
“We are pleased to work with Sucden,” said Nick Weatherill, ICI’s Executive Director. “It is important to bring new partners on board to help us reach scale in the sector. “We are particularly interested in exploring, with Sucden, how CLMRS can be extended and expanded in the less organized parts of the cocoa supply chain. Currently we estimate that industry due diligence and child protection systems cover about 15% of the Ivoirian and Ghanaian cocoa supply chains, so getting partners such as Sucden on board will help us to reach full coverage of those households at risk of child labor.”