ICO to focus on curbing child labour in coffee plantations

The International Coffee Organisation would focus on social sustainability in the coffee sector, especially farming, to ensure there is no child labour involved in it, its executive director Vansia Nogueira has said.The ICO is the main inter-governmental organisation for coffee, bringing together exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation.Its member governments represent 98 per cent of world coffee production and 67 per cent of world consumption.If we talk about social sustainability, we have very, very restricted laws in many of these countries.

The International Coffee Organisation would focus on social sustainability in the coffee sector, especially farming, to ensure there is no child labour involved in it, its executive director Vanúsia Nogueira has said.

The ICO is the main inter-governmental organisation for coffee, bringing together exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation.

Its member governments represent 98 per cent of world coffee production and 67 per cent of world consumption.

''If we talk about social sustainability, we have very, very restricted laws in many of these countries. I'm not sure where we are doing a benchmark right now about the social part but that's our focus in the future,'' Nogueira told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of a World Coffee Conference here. According to her, there are some countries that are very strict about child labour, but there are also some others where the laws are more flexible.

''There is a discussion for example, in terms of the child labour. There is a discussion about what they call the family business…It is a part of your family, it is your sons, your daughters, then this is a family business, then this could not be considered as a child labour but it has been questioned in a lot countries,'' she said.

Nogueira, however, pointed out that sometimes child labour or children assist their parents in their family business in some countries but the ICO ''would need to check how to do it.'' ''...we need to be sure that the children will have access to school, they have to be inside the education system in the country. They need to have access to the house,'' she said.

In her country Brazil, child labour is prohibited completely even for family-run businesses.

To a question on rating coffee producing countries in terms of best practices in farming, sustainability and other benchmarks, she said Costa Rica was doing well in the management of farms and the profitability of the business.

''If you talk about productivity, then we will talk about Brazil and Vietnam; the productivity per hectare. These are the benchmarks for Robusta and Arabica," she said.

Bengaluru hosted the four-day World Coffee Conference-2023, where representatives, businessmen and growers from over 80 countries took part, which concluded on Friday.

According to Coffee Board of India officials, Karnataka contributes about 70 per cent of total coffee production in the country.

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