(Referencing) In the 2024 Chocolate Scorecard, Nestlé scored 57% overall, placing it in the “Progressing” category. While it’s commendable ('yellow RAG status (*Starting to develop and implement good policies) that Nestlé has improved supply chain transparency and acknowledged past forced labour issues, it still trails behind ethical leaders like Tony’s Chocolonely (91%) and Original Beans (86%), who set the benchmark for living income and child protection. From a public perception viewpoint, I imagine many consumers who enjoy many of Nestle's products may be surprised at this overall ranking and could reconsider purchasing and / or their brand loyalty pending their personal political and ethical positioning.

To improve its ranking, Nestlé could:

• Embed living income benchmarks into supplier contracts, co-designed with cocoa farming communities to ensure economic resilience.

• Strengthen child labour prevention through community-led monitoring, education access, and infrastructure investment—moving from reactive audits to a proactive stewardship.

• Elevate traceability by integrating digital tools and farmer-level data, ensuring visibility across the entire supply chain. (Supply chain transparency)

These steps would not only enhance Nestlé’s scorecard performance but also reinforce its reputation as a responsible global leader in ethical sourcing.

In order to move up in ranking, when focussed on living income for cocoa farmers, Nestle should consider truly embedding and enforcing a published living income policy, and a supporting living income plan, across their supply chain. Specific to child labour eradication: again, a well embedded child labour policy, that takes into account gender, and that is well understood through regular training, coupled with transparent reporting on programs/schemes to monitor and remediate, would assist Nestle in further improving its ranking against the Chocolate Scorecard Methodology.

In your opinion, how effective are Nestlé's current strategies in addressing modern slavery in its supply chain? What challenges might the company face in ensuring long-term compliance from all suppliers, and how could these be mitigated?

My view: give its global footprint and brand awareness - and with that, its significant reach, and taking into account prior feedback received in the public domain, Nestle should aim to position itself a vocal leader in combating modern slavery. Further partnerships with - and real listening to - local communities/NGOs in the developing jurisdictions they operate in, can help Nestle become even more effective in addressing modern slavery. Challenges in ensuring long-term compliance will include the ongoing costs associated with monitoring, training, awareness, and the volatility and complexity of the suppliers in some parts of the supply chains in this industry.

As discussed in earlier modules, improvement can only start with investing in local actors, norms and expectations. Nestlé will fail if the deep long-term impact of child labour is not understood, and respectfully addressed, with empowerment, relevant alternatives, and long-term investment in generational change.

-            Traceability

-            Living Income

-            Child & forced labour

-            Deforestation & Climate Change

-            Agroforestry

-            Pesticides

Nestle ranks 5^th in the current Chocolate score card, with a score of 70% overall. Ritter sport ranked 4^th on the list comes in at 83% with only one item (pesticides) ranked as starting to develop. The gap in the overall % shows that Nestle still has some way to go before being able to be counted in the top 4.

Nestle have been scored as leading the industry in traceability and transparency as well as their Child and forced labour policies and Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS).

For Living wages and Deforestation they have been marked as starting to develop and implement good policies.

 Where they fall down to Needs more work on implementation and policy is Agroforestry and Pesticides.

Nestle has developed policies and procedures for supplying a living income to coco farmers and child labour eradication. It needs time to develop these further and ensure that the policies are implemented and actioned at all layers of the organization. The policies need to be embedded into all actions the company takes and the mind set needs to used to support farmers such that they do not need to use child labour or allow anyone else affiliated with he organization to use child labour.

The company needs to ensure that they identify , asses and address modern slavery risks at all levels of the organization, and that the risks they identify are eliminated from the supply chain gin future years. This is a long term goal, not something that can be done as a one off report, feedback loops need to be build in to all levels of the policy and the organization to ensure that modern slavery is identified and the policies amended to reflect the new changes.

Nestles Human Rights Framework and the transparency they have adopted on its implementation across the company is a good starting point, but continuous improvement means embedding the framework in the way they conduct their business.

• Having a statement recognising a living income as a basic human right

• Having a time-bound action plan with a long-term commitment to farmers earning a living income

• Using an actual living income calculation to benchmark their programs

• Making payments to farmers on top of farm gate price and mandatory differentials

• Investing in development projects determined in consultation with the communities they are sourcing from.

Nestle score 72% on child labour eradication.  To achieve a high score in this area, a company like Nestle would;

• Have a policy on child labor

• Implement a A Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS)

•Be addressing root causes of child labour such as poverty and other human rights factors

The challenges that Nestle face relate to their scale.  As one of the largest companies in this industry they have a large supply chain, and thus need traceability and transparency if they are to achieve compliance and improvements.  One approach to achieving this is to analyse and engage with those companies that are ranked highly on the chocolate scorecard and look to emulate and learn from them

The challenges that Nestle face relate to their scale.  As one of the largest companies in this industry they have a large supply chain, and thus need traceability and transparency if they are to achieve compliance and improvements.  One approach to achieving this is to analyse and engage with those companies that are ranked highly on the chocolate scorecard and look to emulate and learn from them