The statement below outlines a vision of what an ethical cocoa sourcing policy looks like.  If your organization or company is interested in endorsing this statement, please contact Tim at tim.newmanatilrf.org.

We, the undersigned, represent chocolate companies, social justice organizations, faith-based groups, labor unions, citizens, consumers, investors and retailers.  Together we wish to bring attention to the profound social and economic problems that persist in the global cocoa and chocolate industries.

We recognize that in the global supply chain, workers on cocoa farms are sometimes subject to unacceptable forms of exploitation, including debt bondage, trafficking and the worst forms of child labor, and that the standard models for trade and cocoa pricing have left cocoa farmers impoverished and economically vulnerable year after year.

We acknowledge that all of us within the nations who import and consume nearly all of the world's cocoa production have a particular responsibility to use our economic, social and moral power to address these problems. Further, we commit ourselves to doing what we can in our respective roles to quickly reform this important industry that shapes the lives of millions of small farmers, farm workers, and thousands of rural communities around the world. 

Specifically, for those of us who are direct commercial participants in the cocoa supply chain ? from the level of the farm to the consumer?we commit ourselves to abide by the steps articulated below or to work with other commercial signatories who do so.

Other signatories, such as interested non-profit or faith-based organizations, pledge our support of these measures and will work to increase their adoption within the cocoa and chocolate industry.

1)    Provide transparency in the cocoa supply chain to farm level.  We will provide our customers with detailed information about the origins of our cocoa beans and will support the establishment of systems that can map in any given growing season all the farms, production sites and cooperatives from which we may have sourced cocoa beans.  Additionally, we will publish and make publicly available full information on any payments made to government entities in cocoa-producing countries.

2)    Commit to sourcing exclusively from farms and cooperatives which respect the core ILO labor standards, and pay a price adequate for those producers to meet these standards. We will have our products certified by a third party auditor which is independent from our companies to ensure that core labor standards are upheld by our producers and within our supply chains.

3)    Pay farmers a fair and adequate price for the cocoa we purchase. ?Fair and adequate? is defined as a price that exceeds the costs of production and that allows farmers to meet the basic human needs of their families and workers, including adequate nutrition, shelter, medical care, and primary education.

4)  Implement ? or maintain ? as the case may be, the following structural practices so as to ensure farmers a consistently better price: simplifying our supply chain, working with cooperatives, encouraging cooperatization, providing more market information to farmers and committing to long-term trade relationships with cocoa producers.

5)    Support the drafting and enforcement of national and international laws that prohibit human trafficking, debt bondage and the other worst forms of child labor (in accordance with ILO Convention 182). 

6)    Commit to 100% Fair Trade Certified sourcing of cocoa or to financing the rehabilitation, reintegration and education of children who have been exploited by the worst forms of child labor (in accordance with ILO Convention 182) on cocoa farms, both in the growing countries and labor exporting countries, through direct support to local and international development organizations with an expertise in child rights.