ABIDJAN (Reuters) – U.S. customs authorities have asked cocoa traders to report where and when they encounter child labor in their supply chains in top grower Ivory Coast, three industry sources said, following calls from American lawmakers to ban some imports.
FILE PHOTO: A farmer opens a cocoa pod at a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast, December 6, 2019. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon/File Photo
Cocoa traders and chocolate companies including Mars, Hershey, Cargill and Barry Callebaut, have repeatedly missed internationally agreed targets for reducing the worst forms of child labor from supply lines in West Africa, all sides have acknowledged.
Pressure in the United States is now increasing after two senators asked the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) last July to use its authority to block the import of Ivorian cocoa produced with forced labor.
The CBP inquiry comes in the form of a 25-part questionnaire seen by Reuters and a request for various documents. It was sent this month to companies including Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Olam, Sucden and Ecom, according to the sources, who are from companies that received it.
CBP has “engaged with the cocoa industry to trace cocoa supply chains and understand industry internal controls and compliance regimes,” a CBP spokesperson told