Mars unequivocally condemns the use of child labor. It has no place in our supply chain, and we are fully committed to helping to eradicate it.
Despite our repeated requests, CBS did not provide specific details of their investigation to Mars ahead of their broadcast, which meant that we were unable to look into the allegations raised in their program. We are now urgently investigating the claims made in the broadcast and are ready to take appropriate action against any supplier found not to have met our expectations laid out in our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Our cocoa suppliers in Ghana have agreed to adhere to our robust Supplier Code of Conduct and we have also been clear that they must have a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in place by 2025 that complies with the industry leading International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) standard. Over 65% of our cocoa supply in West Africa is already covered by CLMRS which is implemented by our suppliers on the ground, with audits conducted by certification bodies as part of Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade certification requirements.
We have a robust Protecting Children Action Plan in place that is backed by a significant financial investment totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years. We are also transparent in saying that we know that more needs to be done and we continue to work diligently with parties across the cocoa sector to further help advance respect for human rights in the cocoa supply chain.
