Brand ambassador pledges ‘work will be done’ after children are filmed toiling on Guatemalan farms believed to supply company. George Clooney has praised the Channel 4 Dispatches journalist who highlighted Nespresso’s failures and urged the company to act.
George Clooney has said he is “surprised and saddened” by the alleged discovery of child labour on farms used by coffee giant Nespresso, the brand for which he has long served as ambassador.
The Oscar-winning actor and director, who during school holidays worked on his own family’s tobacco farm in Kentucky, vowed that “work will be done” to improve conditions after a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, due to air next week, filmed children picking coffee beans and hauling sacks on six Guatemalan farms believed to supply Nespresso.
“Having grown up working on a tobacco farm from the time I was 12, I’m uniquely aware of the complex issues regarding farming and child labour,” said Clooney in a statement.
“Clearly this board and this company still have work to do. And that work will be done.”
In response the company, which is part of Swiss conglomerate Nestlé and advertises its coffee as ethically sourced, has launched a “thorough investigation” into its farms in Guatemala and suspended all purchases from the problem plantations.
“Nespresso has zero tolerance of child labour,” said Guillaume Le Cunff, the Nespresso CEO, in a statement.
“It is unacceptable. Where there are claims that our high standards are not met, we act immediately.
“Any issues we uncover will be dealt with diligently and firm action will be taken. We work with Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade International to reinforce good working practices and fair treatment of workers, including education on the dangers of child labour.
“We will continue to do all we can to stamp child labour out. It has no place in our supply chain.”
Despite numerous corporate-led and third-party audit visits to Nespresso’s coffee farms in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Uganda and other supplying countries, only two cases of child labour were reported in 2019, according to Nespresso. Fifteen cases were reported over the past four years, although none of them were in Guatemala, and each one was “effectively resolved”, the company said.
However, Le Cunff admitted that its coffee suppliers are given “a day or two days” advanced notice when spot checks take place.
In his statement, Clooney, who has been the public face of the coffee company for the past 14 years and sits on Nespresso’s sustainability advisory board alongside the NGO Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade International, and the Fair Labour Association, said he was “enormously proud of the success of Nespresso’s efforts” in “improv[ing]the lives and livelihoods of farmers all around the world”.
But he admitted that investigative journalism played an “imperative” role in pointing out Nespresso’s failures and that more needed to be done to bring the company in line with its ethical standards.
“The check and balance of good corporate responsibility lies not just with the company itself but also independent journalists like Dispatches reporter Anthony Barnett to hold everyone’s promise to account.”
Nespresso is categorically against child labor and operates with a zero tolerance policy against its practice. Any producer who is even minimally responsible for child labor will be excluded from the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program and we will not buy coffee from them, until they are able to demonstrate that they comply with our standards.
On the other side: What Nespresso says
We were informed by a British media vehicle that they had identified cases of child labor at six farms, in a region in Guatemala. The news vehicle declined to provide details of the farms, so that it was possible to confirm whether they supplied Nespresso or not. Nevertheless, we have started a full investigation and have already carried out several actions:
We immediately stopped purchasing coffee from all farms in the region and will not keep doing so, until we can investigate and make sure that child labor is not being used; there
We work with Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade International to reinforce good work practices and fair treatment of workers, including education on the risks of child labor;
Through this investigation, any problems we discover will be dealt with diligently. We will double the number of agronomists we have in the region of Guatemala and will implement unannounced visits to verify compliance with social and labor issues.
We invested heavily in 2019 to maintain our quality and socio-environmental commitment standards. There are 400 agronomists who have made more than 170 thousand visits and agricultural training sessions worldwide. This was supported by more than 3,300 verification audits carried out over the past year.
We will continue to do everything we can to end child labor, as it has no place in our supply chain.
