Ferrero hit by fears it uses nuts picked by six-year- old children
CHILDREN as young as six may have picked the hazelnuts used to make millions of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, human rights campaigners claim.
Ferrero, which also produces the popular spread Nutella, as well as Kinder and Thorntons chocolates, buys almost 50,000 tons of hazelnuts every year from Turkey – where child labour is widespread.
According to the most recent Turkish government records from 2012, 900,000 children worked in six sectors including farming. Of those, 11,300 were aged between six and 14.
In 2018, 67 children and teenagers lost their lives while working in Turkey, according to the Centre for Child Rights.
Ferrero, the world’s thirdbiggest chocolate maker, is based in Piedmont, Northern Italy, and had a £9.1 billion turnover last year.
An estimated 130 million Ferrero Rocher are sold in the
UK every year and they are the nation’s most popular chocolate at Christmas.
Ferrero said it was ‘determined to prevent and eliminate child labour all along our supply chains’. But a spokesman admitted that barely half the hazelnuts used in its products are traced. He said: ‘The complexity of the hazelnut supply chain means it cannot be transformed by one single actor.’
Interviews with child workers in Turkey filmed by campaign groups include children allegedly as young as 11 claiming they are forced to work up to 12 hours a day, The Guardian reported.
In one clip, an 11-year-old girl says: ‘We walk to the field at 6.30am and start working at seven or 7.30am. We work until 6pm. This is the second time I have come to work here.’
Farmers interviewed in the clips claim they sell their hazelnuts to Ferrero through other companies. Ferrero says it hopes to make its hazelnuts entirely traceable next year.