What's with Nestle's move to do the right thing on child labour?

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

So here I was, wondering if Nestle, a company with an often unsavoury reputation, really means to make direct payouts to cocoa farmers in Cote d’ Ivoire and Ghana to end child labour in its supply chain?

Is the social welfare scheme for real or is it meant to be just good PR?

On the phone from the Netherlands, Antonie Fountain, managing director of VOICE Network, a global non-profit umbrella group working for sustainable cocoa, told me: “It’s a significant investment that Nestle is making and the plan has some interesting components, which could be successful.” Nestle is one of seven big western companies involved in the chocolate trade, so “it’s a good start” towards reform of the sector, he said. “It can’t solve all the problems, of course,”

Mr Fountain added: “For instance, Nestle has not said anything about paying farmers a fair price. But, there are some good things in this anti-poverty measure, such as gender equality, which they place at the …