Supply chain News and trends

President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to have “zero tolerance” for child labour in EU trade, and asserted a vision and priorities to have an EU that stands up for justice and human rights.  She stressed that the EU economy must prioritize “social fairness and prosperity” for all people. While these are ambitious, promising steps, such aspirations are useless unless effective action is taken.

Sadly, child labour continues to increase in the EU supply chain of coffee, cocoa, and many other agricultural products. Child labour negates social fairness, equality, and justice, and weakens and threatens the rule of law.

Via EcoVadis

The Post traced this cobalt pipeline and, for the first time, showed how cobalt mined in these harsh conditions ends up in popular consumer products. It moves from small-scale Congolese mines to a single Chinese company — Congo DongFang International Mining, part of one of the world’s biggest cobalt producers, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt — that for years has supplied some of the world’s largest battery makers. They, in turn, have produced the batteries found inside products such as Apple’s iPhones — a finding that calls into question corporate assertions that they are capable of monitoring their supply chains for human rights abuses or child labor.

Via EcoVadis

Italian confectionery group Ferrero said on Wednesday it has launched an investigation into allegations that Romanian children as young as six were making toys for its Kinder chocolate eggs.
The statement came after British newspaper, The Sun, reported this week that impoverished families in Romania were working long hours for little pay to make the toys at home.

Via EcoVadis

In late February, Sky News aired an investigative report centered on the utilization of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The investigation shed light on a vastly complex apparatus of the most brutal forms of exploitation utilized to extract the Congo’s vast mineral wealth.

Via EcoVadis

The world’s most popular food and household companies are selling food, cosmetics and other everyday staples containing palm oil tainted by shocking human rights abuses in Indonesia, with children as young as eight working in hazardous conditions, said Amnesty International in a new report published today.
The report, The great palm oil scandal: Labour abuses behind big brand names, investigates palm oil plantations in Indonesia run by the world’s biggest palm oil grower, Singapore-based agri-business Wilmar, tracing palm oil to nine global firms: AFAMSA, ADM, Colgate-Palmolive, Elevance, Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever.

Via EcoVadis