Americans are the leading world consumers of chocolate. The U. S. chocolate industry is heavily dominated by Hershey’ s, Nestlé and Mars, who control most of the market. Unfortunately, these companies fall into the category of those companies who use large amounts of Côte d’ Ivoire cocoa, meaning that their products can be made with up to 90 % slave-produced cocoa.
Hershey Foods Corp., the US’ s largest chocolate-maker, says it is“ shocked” and“ deeply concerned” that its products( such as Hershey’ s Kisses, Nuggets, Hershey chocolate bars and Reese’ s Peanut Butter Cups,) are made with cocoa produced by child slaves. The company, which has a long history of involvement with children, says it is deeply embarrassed by revelations of indirect involvement with child slavery. Hershey Foods is affiliated with a school for orphaned and disadvantaged children which was established in 1909 by company founder Milton S. Hershey and his wife Catherine. However, Hershey still uses child slavery.
The Milton Hershey School Trust, which funds the school, owns controlling interest in The Hershey Company and owns the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company( HERCO) which oversees many hotels along with a theme park called Hersheypark. With over six billion dollars in assets, the Milton Hershey School is one of the wealthiest schools in the world.
Nestlé is also one of the richest companies on earth. Go to page 25 for more information and why people boycott Nestlé.
Hershey’ s, Nestlé, and Mars are not alone.( A buying guide is on page 24 of this booklet.) While these companies have issued condemnations of slavery, and expressed a great deal of‘ outrage’ that it exists in the industry, they have acknowledged that they use Côte d’ Ivoire cocoa and so have no grounds to ensure consumers that their products are slavery-free. Companies like Mars, Hershey, and Nestlé often say that there is no way they can control the labor practices of their suppliers. But there are other chocolate companies who manage to do so, and if the bigger companies really wanted to reform problems in the supply chain, they have the power and ability to do so.
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