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Company News of Thursday, June 6, 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-06-06
The ILO said it was unlikely that the world would reach its goal of ending child labor by 2025
Ghana could end child labor on cocoa farms by raising the price it pays to impoverished farmers by about 50 percent, according to a US study, as global efforts to end child labor stagnate.
Paying only 3% more on the farm could prevent Ghana's children from doing the most dangerous tasks, such as using machetes, or working more than 42 hours a week, researchers said, with the illegal practice being driven by poverty and rarely pursued.
"We thought there should be some incentive, in addition to the laws, to stop child labor by farmers," said Jeff Luckstead, agricultural economist at the University of New York. Arkansas, co-author of the study published in the journal PLoS ONE.
"It's a really difficult problem because they are very poor farmers … They do not have many options – they can not just hire people," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A PLoS spokesperson then added that, while the underlying conclusions of the report were all accurate, some of the figures cited in the study were under revision and an update would follow shortly. No other details have been given.
Ghana is the world's second largest producer of cocoa, with more than 700,000 children producing it, often performing hazardous work on family farms, such as carrying heavy loads or using sharp tools, says anti-slavery group Walk Free Foundation. .
The big chocolatiers are under pressure to clean up their supply chains since information on child labor in West African cocoa farms was released in the 1990s, brands majors such as Mars and Hershey promising to only buy ethical cocoa by 2020.
The International Labor Organization has stated that it is unlikely that the world will achieve its goal of ending child labor by 2025, which is part of the 17 global development goals agreed upon in the world. 2015 at the United Nations.
Researchers determined price increases by badyzing data between 2003 and 2015, including household budgets, cocoa prices and production, and children's recreation and education.
While acknowledging that a 50% price increase was "implausible", the study suggested that Ghana could become more competitive globally if it could certify its cocoa as "child labor-free" ".
All cocoa produced in Ghana is sold to the regulator, COCOBOD, which paid 7,600 Cedis ($ 1,435) to farmers per ton last year. Ghana exports almost 20% of the world's cocoa production, or about 4.8 million tonnes a year.
Most cocoa-producing families live below the World Bank's $ 2 per day poverty line, according to the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) charity that feeds child labor.
However, Geneviève LeBaron of Sheffield UK University, who was not part of the study, said that the solution to eradicate cocoa farmers' poverty did not necessarily mean raising COCOBOD prices, but a more equitable distribution. profits in the chocolate sector.
The global chocolate industry accounted for about $ 85 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to $ 102 billion by 2022, according to research firm Mintel.
"If you look at the annual profits of the world's largest chocolate and cocoa confectionery companies, you will find that this supply chain contains a lot of money that could be redistributed down the chain. of value, "said the policy professor.
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