Campaigners against human trafficking have welcomed the decision by chocolate maker Mars to ensure that all cocoa in its chocolate is made under Rainforest Alliance certification by 2020.
The pledge means that farms supplying Mars with cocoa will need to meet a number of environmental and social standards, including paying a minimum range and protecting workers rights and benefits.
Mars said that it’s Galaxy milk chocolate bars will have the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal from next year.
The decision has been welcomed by Stop The Traffik, which was founded by Baptist minster Rev Steve Chalke.
Chalke, while welcoming the announcement, said that the pledge needed to be enacted. Eight years ago Mars pledged to end the worst forms of exploitation by summer 2005, the deadline was subsequently extended to July 2008.
Chalke said, “We congratulate Mars on taking this significant step towards rectifying the travesty of human rights that is people trafficking within the chocolate industry,” reports Baptist Times.
“But together the consumers of the world must now hold Mars and the other manufacturers to account to ensure that they deliver on their promises in the agreed time scale or even sooner.”
Chalke said that Stop The Traffik and other activists were "determined that life will change for the better for cocoa farmers and the children of West Africa”.
Stop The Traffik has been joined by the International Labor Rights Forum in keeping pressure on chocolate makers to move towards Fair Trade certification.
The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) joined Stop The Traffik in keeping up the pressure on chocolate manufacturers by repeating its call for a unified move towards the Fair Trade certification.
The ILRF added that Rainforest Alliance standards were “not the strongest in terms of sustainability certification programmes”, but added that Mars’ announcement showed that change was “indeed possible”.
