Nestle : Nestlé makes progress on empowering women in cocoa supply chain
January 21, 2015 at 08:37 am EST
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Jan 21, 2015
Nestlé makes progress on empowering women in cocoa supply chain
Nestlé's work to empower women in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d'Ivoire kicked off in 2013 and we're making more headway with our partners on this important issue.
In recent months, for example, we've helped train four cocoa cooperatives on gender issues in order to open more roles, such as lead farmers and nursery managers, to women. The cooperatives have also now produced their own action plans for improving the positions of women in the cocoa supply chain.
The new measures are reflected in a new progress report Nestlé has published on its Action Plan (pdf, 500Kb) to help improve the lives of women in its cocoa supply chain in Côte d'Ivoire. The Action Plan is part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan programme launched in 2013 in Côte d'Ivoire to improve the lives of cocoa farmers and the quality of their crops, and to tackle low productivity and child labour.
The Action Plan was updated in August 2014, following the Fair Labor Association's (FLA) assessment of Nestlé's cocoa supply chain (pdf, 2Mb) in the country.
As part of the other steps taken recently, the number of women who lead and oversee Nestlé cocoa plantlet nurseries has increased from 3 percent to 23 percent. There are a total of 32 Nestlé-run plantlet nurseries.
Nestlé's progress report reflects actions it has taken between August 2014 and January 2015. The report discusses Nestlé's plans for 2015 under three main action pillars: promoting equal opportunities, giving women a voice and helping to increase women's income.
Though Ivorian women play a number of direct and supporting roles in cocoa production, their roles often go unrecognised. Men take responsibility for collecting payment for the cocoa, often making a woman's compensation for her labour dependent on her relationship with a man.
Thus, challenging the perceptions of women's roles in the cocoa supply chain are an important dimension to ongoing work of Nestlé and its partners. Nestlé plans to expand the roll out of its Action Plan for female cocoa farmers to Ghana in mid-2016.
Nestlé S.A. is the world's leading agri-food group. Net sales break down by category of products as follows:
- powdered and liquid beverages (26.7%): soluble coffees (Nescafé and Starbucks brands), coffee in capsules (Nespresso), chocolate drinks (Nesquik, Milo, etc.), tea drinks (Nestea), etc.;
- pet food (20.3%): brands such as Purina, Friskies, Felix, etc.;
- pharmaceutical, nutrition and well-being products (16.4%): nutritional supplements (Resource, Boost, Nutren, Optifast, Peptamen brands, etc.), infant and maternal nutrition products (NAN, illuma, Cerelac, Nido, Gerber), ketogenic beverages (BrainXpert), (Nesquick, Fitness, Cheerios, Lion, etc.), etc.;
- ready meals and seasoning products (12.5%): frozen and chilled dishes (Lean Cuisine, Hot Pockets and Stouffer's brands), soups (Maggi), etc.;
- dairy products and ice cream (11.8%): powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk, yoghurt and cream desserts, ice cream (Nido, Nesvita, Carnation, La Laitière, Coffee Mate, Nestlé Ice Cream, Dreyers, Häagen-Dazs, Extrême brands, etc.);
- chocolates, sweets and biscuits (8.7%): Kit Kat, Smarties, Cailler, Terrafertil, etc. brands;
- bottled waters (3.6%): Nestlé Pure Life, Vittel, Perrier, S. Pellegrino, etc. brands.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Switzerland (1.2%), France (3.8%), the United Kingdom (3.8%), Germany (2.4%), Europe (12.8%), the United States and Canada (35%), China (5.9%), Asia and Oceania (21.4%) and Latin America (13.7%).