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In the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals and invigorated by their worldwide importance, we are determined to carry on with our work to realize a shared vision of a sustainable future. Our ongoing commitment to support the world’s development ambitions is part of our responsibility as a global company and a nutrition, health, and wellness leader. We strive for people to live healthy lives, in a healthy environment, and in healthy communities. Partnering is central to our business model, and since 2011, we have been working with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to improve transparency and address complex social challenges in the hazelnut supply chain in Turkey. Together, we are furthering our understanding of the difficulties faced by rural communities and achieving significant progress.

Turkey is the world’s leading producer of hazelnuts, with around 75 percent of the total global production. Nestlé mainly purchases hazelnuts as a raw material from the eastern and western parts of the Black Sea region of Turkey; of the 7,000 tons we sourced in 2015, more than 4,000 tons came from these areas. Even when we do not source directly from the farms but from a small number of suppliers, who obtain the hazelnuts through a chain of intermediaries, we believe that our supply chains represent one of the biggest opportunities at hand to contribute to healthy lives, in a healthy environment, and in healthy communities.

This is why, in 2011, Nestlé asked the FLA to assess labor practices in our hazelnut supply chain in Turkey. Since then, the FLA has been conducting annual audits, after which it identifies a number of labor and human rights issues, including the presence of children on hazelnut farms; preferential treatment of local workers over migrants; health and safety risks related to the transportation of workers; excessive working hours; and inadequate compensation.

Each year, the FLA makes recommendations to address any issues it has identified during the hazelnut harvest. Nestlé uses these recommendations to strengthen its responsible sourcing roadmap and action plans. FLA’s findings in its 2015 assessments were encouraging, as it identified a series of important improvements, notably the significant decrease in the reporting of child labor, which suggests that the prioritization of the issue and joint remediation activities with other companies have been effective. The association has also acknowledged that progress has been achieved in terms of supplier code awareness and training. Encouraged by these results, we continue to take firm steps to make continuous progress in other areas that require further work.

These activities are part of our effort to ensure that our suppliers make continuous improvements in meeting our Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Guideline on Hazelnuts (RSG). Our RSG sets out non-negotiable minimum requirements on human rights and labor standards, health and safety, sustainability, and business integrity. Traceability is the first step toward ensuring that suppliers meet our RSG requirements. By the end of 2015, 65 percent of our hazelnuts sourced from Turkey were traced back to the farm, and 20 percent of this volume was responsibly sourced. In addition, our two direct hazelnut suppliers, Balsu and Olam-Progida, have held training and awareness-raising sessions on labor issues – including child labor – with 2,349 processors, intermediaries, growers, and workers.

In December 2015, Nestlé (along with our direct suppliers) and the FLA were awarded a $4.9 million grant from the US Department of Labor to address child labor in the hazelnut supply chain by strengthening internal monitoring and remediation systems. The project, which will be implemented in approximately 1,000 hazelnut gardens in the Turkish regions of Ordu and Sakarya, in coordination with the Turkish government and the International Labour Organization (ILO), will especially focus on preventing children from working in hazelnut production.

Addressing challenges around labor conditions is complex and requires the collaboration of many stakeholders. We believe that multistakeholder dialogue and participating in industry efforts can help raise standards, making efforts more efficient and successful. We have driven a public–private partnership with the ILO and the Association of Chocolate, Biscuits and Confectionery Industries of Europe (CAOBISCO) trade association as well as a working group with the Turkish Ministry of Labor. These concerted activities have focused on training workers and raising awareness to improve the working conditions for laborers, in particular the conditions for the many temporary migrant workers employed during the harvest period.