"Ferrero wishes to announce its goal to achieve independent and credible third-party verification of the sourcing of all of its cocoa by 2020."
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Amazing news! Major chocolate companies Ferrero and Lindt have made unprecedented public commitments to ensuring a slave free supply chain after Melbourne child care worker Morgan Rayner started a Change.org petition that grew to 110,000 supporters! |
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What an incredible victory. Just weeks ago, major chocolate companies Ferrero and Lindt were refusing to make a public commitment to eradicating child labour in their supply chains. They hadn’t budged despite years of pressure -- in fact, they were the only two global chocolate brands who were yet to publicly act on the issue.
Morgan Rayner is a childcare worker from Melbourne who loves chocolate - and just days before Easter, she launched a petition on Change.org calling for a public commitment to a child slave free supply chain.
Her petition took off -- and in less than four days grew to 110,000 signatures around the world. It sparked a social media storm, and soon senior executives from both Lindt and Ferrero reached out directly to Morgan.
Within weeks, both had committed to 100% audited cocoa supply chains by 2020, ensuring an unprecedented commitment to wiping out child labour in the production of their chocolate (see below for more detail on their commitments).
Groups like Stop the Traffik deserve a huge amount of credit for their long and sustained work on this campaign. Their work, together with the amazing surge of energy from Morgan’s petition comprehensively demonstrated the public’s desire for Ferrero and Lindt to make this move, and made inaction impossible.
Morgan’s campaign isn’t over -- she says that there are many things both companies can be doing to be even better, and that much more work is needed to ensure these pledges are implemented. But these commitments represent an incredibly important step in the right direction.
Morgan’s experience shows the amazing ability of one person to take a small but powerful action, and spark a huge movement for change. If there’s something you want to change -- whether its in your local community or about an international issue -- you should start a petition on Change.org right now.
Thanks for being part of this,
Nick, Bobbi, Karen and the Change.org team.
-------------- The Commitments by the Chocolate Companies --------------
Ferrero
Ferrero has committed to “independent and credible third-party verification of the sourcing of all of its cocoa by 2020”. It has expressed “determination to contribute to the elimination of child slave labour,” and committed to transparent, annual reports of its progress. For the complete statement, click here.
Lindt
Lindt has reaffirmed its commitment to “eradicating” child slave labour from cocoa production. It has promised to begin verification by by independent “partner” organisations, with the aim of extending this to their entire range by 2020. It will also publish annual progress reports to ensure its actions are “accountable and credible.” For the complete statement, click here. | 
