US probe child labor in Ivory Coast cocoa supply chains

ABIDJAN: U.S. customs authorities have asked cocoa traders to report where and when they encounter child labor in their supply chains in top grower Ivory Coast, three industry sources said, following calls from American lawmakers to ban some imports. Cocoa traders and chocolate companies including Mars, Hershey, Cargill and Barry Callebaut, have repeatedly missed internationally agreed targets for reducing the worst forms of child labor from supply lines in West Africa, all sides have acknowledged.

Pressure in the United States is now increasing after two senators asked the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) last July to use its authority to block the import of Ivorian cocoa produced with forced labor. The CBP inquiry comes in the form of a 25-part questionnaire seen by Reuters and a request for various documents. It was sent this month to companies including Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Olam, Sucden and Ecom, according to the sources, who are from companies that received it.

CBP has "engaged with the cocoa industry to trace cocoa supply chains and understand industry internal controls and compliance regimes," a CBP spokesperson told Reuters. The text of the questionnaire seen by Reuters did not specify a deadline for a response. Reuters was unable to determine what CBP plans to do with the information it gathers, but the spokesperson said the agency has the authority to block imports when information indicates they have been made with forced or indentured labor.

Even a partial blockage could inflict steep costs on suppliers, increase the price of chocolate and have a crippling effect on Ivory Coast exports which rely heavily on U.S. buyers. "We believe that any U.S. ban on cocoa imports from (Ivory Coast) will hurt, not help," said Richard Scobey, the head of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), an industry group. "It could push millions of poor farmers deeper into poverty, even though the vast majority of them are innocent of such practices."