The Cocoa Division of Sucres et Denrées (Sucden) has joined the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) as a Contributing Partner. This will allow Sucden and ICI to work together to reach more children and families in cocoa growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, to achieve the shared goal of eliminating child labour, enabling child protection and addressing the issue of forced labour.

Sucden is a global purchaser of cocoa from farmers and various types of farmer organizations, sourcing much of this cocoa for major international branded chocolate manufacturers. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are significant producing countries for Sucden, and its membership of ICI is motivated by its objective to roll out Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) in its supply chains, and drive further collaboration and sharing with respect to methods and results.

“We’re pleased to work with Sucden,” said Nick Weatherill, ICI’s Executive Director. “It is important to bring new partners on board to help us reach scale in the sector. Currently we estimate that industry due diligence and child protection systems cover about 15% of the Ivoirian and Ghanaian cocoa supply chains, so getting partners such as Sucden on board will help us to reach full coverage of those households at risk of child labour.”

“We’re particularly interested in exploring, with Sucden, how CLMRS can be extended and expanded in the less organized parts of the cocoa supply chain,” he added.

“We look forward to gaining insights from ICI on how to more effectively and efficiently implement CLMRS and forced labor monitoring in our supply chain,” said Paul Davis, Head of Sucden’s global cocoa organization. “Our ability to assure customers that such monitoring is taking place in an effective manner has never been so important and we will certainly benefit from ICI’s depth of expertise.”