Cyrian International, a cocoa trading company created in 2012, has joined the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) as a contributing partner, as part of its efforts to fight child labour in its cocoa supply chain.
Established in Côte d’Ivoire in 2012, the company began its activities buying cocoa directly from the farmers, helping it to develop close relationships with a large network of producers based in the East of the country.
In 2016-2017, the company began to focus more on cocoa exports. In order to further support this move, it has decided to increase the focus on tackling deforestation and child labour in its cocoa supply chain, within its wider sustainability strategy.
“Sustainable development has always been important to our company, and we apply both Rainforest Alliance and UTZ certifications across our producers” explained Arland Assoma, CEO of Cyrian International.
“Joining ICI reflects our commitment to fighting child labour in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire. We are interested to use ICI tools to fight child labour such as the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System and we would like to make a difference to rural communities by ensuring a decent wage for cocoa producers, access to health care for producers and their families and access to education for their children,” he added.
For Nick Weatherill, Executive Director of ICI, membership of the cocoa trader is further progress in ICI’s collective journey to tackle child labour and forced labour in the cocoa supply chain.
“We are excited to welcome Cyrian International as an ICI member. As a trader based in the Côte d’Ivoire and with its strong network of cooperatives and farmers, it brings an important grass-roots perspective to the wider ICI community. We look forward to working with Cyrian International and supporting their efforts to tackle child labour in their supply chain in the future,” he said.
“As an organisation we are committed to drive the scale up of effective and sustainable approaches that prevent and address child labour and forced labour, as laid out in our 2021-2026 strategy. It is great to see more companies joining us on this collective journey,” he added.