In August 2016, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) conducted independent assessments in the Turkish hazelnut supply chain shared by three FLA affiliates – Nestlé, and its two strategic first‐tier suppliers, Balsu and Olam Progida which together account for 100 percent of Nestlé’s hazelnut volume in Turkey.
In the 2016 assessment period, the FLA found that more than ten percent of workers at the visited farms were underage – an increase over the 2.1 percent child labor rate found in 2015, which suggests that the remediation activities implemented by the three companies have not been fully effective. Assessors also noted that the political turmoil and clashes in Kurdish–‐ populated Southeastern Turkey (the origin of the seasonal migrant workers in agriculture) may have affected the increase of child labor this year, especially in the western Black Sea region. The civil war in neighboring Syria has deteriorated the livelihoods of the inhabitants of these regions and some workers stated that they had no choice but to work in hazelnut harvest with their children to earn a living.
See more information in the executive summary.
