Chocolate Labour Conditions / Fair Trade Question 9

From RankaBrand

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Contents 1 Question 2 References and Guidelines 3 Ranking guidelines 4 Answering guidelines

Question

Does the brand (company) have a policy for the use of at least fairtrade certified hazelnuts, and also other fillings (e.g. nougat, praline) and ingredients (such as milk, oils and fats)?
Dutch Version: Heeft het merk (bedrijf) een beleid voor het gebruik van tenminste fairtrade gecertificeerde hazelnoten, en ook andere vullingen (bijvoorbeeld noten, caramel, noga, praline) en ingrediënten (melk, olie en vetten)?
German version: Handelt die Marke/das Unternehmen nach der Strategie, zumindestens fair gehandelte Haselnüsse sowie andere zertifizierte Füllungen (z.B. Nougat oder Praliné) und Zutaten (z.B. Milch(puder), Öl und Fett) für ihre Produkte zu gebrauchen?

References and Guidelines

Chocolate is not only made out of cocoa, but also additional ingredients such as nuts, caramel, nougat, praline, milk(powder), sugar, rice, oils and fats are used. This question is meant to find out whether a brand takes social sustainability further than the main ingredient only.

The need is there also, sustainability issues are also current in the smaller sectors. For example, in 2010 a Dutch TV program reported about bad practices and systematic child labour on hazelnut plantations in Turkey.

All ingredients mentioned in the question above can be purchased from socially certified sources, EXCEPT for hazelnuts. Because there is no such thing as fairtrade certified hazelnuts yet, it is important that brands do notify this issue and have a policy that aims to only purchase hazelnuts from sources that do not violate fair labour conditions.

A good example of a 'hazelnuts purchasing policy' that is concerned about social issues can be found at Tony's Chocolonely (see 'Waar komen jullie hazelnoten vandaan en zijn deze ook ‘slaafvrij’?' only in Dutch however).

Ranking guidelines

Brands that make use of fair-trade ingredients and fillings - other then cocoa, sugar and palm oil (we ask specifically for the use of fairtrade sugar in Chocolate Labour Conditions / Fair Trade Question 7 and for the use of palm oil in Chocolate Labour Conditions / Fair Trade Question 8) in their chocolate products will be rewarded with a 'Yes'. As a first step, using only one fair-trade ingredient in products is considered as a 'Yes'.

NOTE: When a brand sells chocolate that contains (parts of) hazelnuts, the brand MUST mention a social policy for purchasing hazelnuts in order to get a 'Yes' for this question.

Answering guidelines

You can reward a ‘Yes’ to companies that describe goals (e.g. ‘buy certified milk powder in 2011'), or actions (e.g. ‘intentions to use an X amount of certified milk powder by 20XX) and outcomes (‘amounts of sustainable milk powder used’). For this question, the range of actions is not measured, so any small policy or action is counted as ‘Yes’. Please mention in the remark section where you found the information to support your answer.

Yes:

• [Brand] uses fairtrade [ingredient] in its products.
• [Brand] has aims to buy [amount] of fairtrade [ingredient] in [YEAR].
• [Brand] has the intention to increase its use of fairtrade [ingredient] by [YEAR].
• [Brand] does not use hazelnuts in its products and has fairtrade purchasing policy for [ingredient].

?:

• [Brand] does not communicate whether its fillings and/or additional ingredients are from socially certified sources.
• [Brand] sells fairtrade [ingredient], but does not communicate a social purchasing policy for its hazelnuts.

No:

• [Brand] specifically states not to use fillings and/or additional ingredients from a socially certified sources.