The Spanish cocoa producer Indcresa has joined the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) as a Contributing Partner, to help support the work of the organization in promoting child protection and tackling child labour and forced labour in cocoa.
Indcresa is a family-owned company headquartered in Barcelona that has been manufacturing cocoa products since 1915. It sources raw material from countries including the Ivory Coast and Ghana and supplies many international companies in the food industry. For Indcresa, joining ICI is a way of supporting the organization’s mission to tackle child labour and forced labour in the cocoa supply chain.
“We believe that achieving a transformational change for the sustainable cocoa sector requires engagement from all stakeholders across the whole cocoa value chain. That’s why after joining the Cocoa & Forests Initiative to tackle deforestation in 2018, Indcresa has now taken a step further by joining ICI as a Contributing Partner to support their catalytic work promoting child protection and tackling child labour, as well as forced labour, in the cocoa sector,” explained Mr. Mario and Carlos Crehuet, Indcresa co-CEO’s.
“We look forward to being part of the ongoing collective effort to scale up good practices, working towards a common goal of eliminating child labour in cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana,” they added.
According to ICI Executive Director Nick Weatherill, Indcresa’s membership to the organization is an important step in reaching more players in the sector and increasing the impact of proven child protection measures.
“We are pleased to welcome Indcresa to ICI. Bringing new partners on board is particularly important in our efforts to drive sector-wide change and reach all children at risk of child labour. This is the goal of our 2021-2026 Strategy that we recently launched, and I am delighted that we have the support and commitment of new member companies, like Indcresa, on this journey.”