29 Jul 2016
Fairtrade response to Telemundo web documentary “Harvest of Misery”
The US-based Spanish-language website Telemundo has published a web documentary called "Harvest of Misery" which reports that child labour, poor working conditions, low pay and inadequate certification and auditing are widespread among coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico. Fairtrade has been in contact with the filmmakers, who confirm they did not visit or film on any Fairtrade certified coffee farms.
Fairtrade welcomes efforts to highlight the challenges faced by farmers and workers, including children and young people, in global supply chains. We encourage and support responsible investigative journalism which shines a spotlight on child labour, poor living and working conditions, low wages and other forms of exploitation which could pose significant risks in coffee production in Mexico and many other parts of the world.
However, we believe "Harvest of Misery" to be misleading because it repeatedly groups together a number of certification and verifications systems and implies that they are all equally at fault. The story makes little attempt to differentiate between Fairtrade - which has rigorous standards, certification, auditing and child protection policies - and a number of other certification organisations. Furthermore, we have asked for, but not yet received, any specific evidence relating to Fairtrade certified coffee farms in Chiapas. If Fairtrade certified coffee farms are implicated, we will investigate and take the appropriate action. If they are not, then we have requested that this is made clear in the story.
If anyone - including a journalist - becomes aware of incidents of child and/or forced labor in non-Fairtrade certified operations, we encourage them to report them safely to the appropriate national protection agencies for follow-up and response.
You can read Fairtrade's full response to the documentary here.
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We are pleased to note that as of 3 August 2016, the story is no longer available on the Telemundo website.
On 19 January 2017, an English-language version of the documentary has been published under the new name "The Source".