US confectioner Hershey’s has announced it will start buying Rainforest Alliance cocoa, apparently bowing to popular pressure on the issue. At the end of last year, the company was lobbied online by 100,000 consumers over its refusal to buy ethically certified cocoa and address child labour problems in its supply chain (EP12, issue 7, p3). The ‘Raise the Bar, Hershey Coalition’, which includes the Global Exchange and International Labor Rights Forum among its campaigners, was due to air an advertisement exposing Hershey’s use of child labour in the middle of the Super Bowl until the announcement was made. The company’s first commitment is to source certified cocoa for its Bliss line by the end of the year, though it has not yet committed to extend certification to all its products in the future.
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