Advocates Visit Mondelèz

When Will Toblerone be Child Slavery Free

On Friday 18th October, Anti-Slavery Day, Peter Gilfedder,  Therese Power, Claire Griffin and Christine Carolan from the Victorian ACRATH group joined with a coalition of others to send a message to Mondelèz, one of the world’s biggest chocolate companies. Like other chocolate companies, they have known about child trafficking into their industry since 2001. In November 2012 their statement to invest $400m into ‘sustainable cocoa’ was welcomed and in July this year they released more information about what the focus of this would be, but failed to provide specific targets or deadlines. Those who gathered in Melbourne on Anti-Slavery Day were asking for more direct action and information. (There are still no clear details about when specific bars such as Toblerone will be made with certified cocoa beans, and when they will commit to certification for the rest of their range).

The anti slavery activists, gathered at the Mondelèz HQ in Melbourne, also handed over thousands of postcards from people saying they want slavery-free chocolate. ACRATH’s Peter Gilfedder (pictured) spoke of his time in West Africa. Peter spoke of the Ivory Coast where young boys are in forced labour on cocoa plantations. Peter also spoke of the crushing poverty in Burkina Faso, the source country for many of the trafficked boys. After the postcards were handed over, a group of eight advocates, including two from ACRATH,went upstairs for an hour long engagement with Mondelèz management. ACRATH was able to remind Mondelèz of the 2014 Easter fairtrade chocolate campaign; this will be our sixth annual Easter campaign; we want all Easter chocolate to be certified as slave-free.