Ethics and suppliers

All of Rieber & Søn’s business units are located in Europe where matters related to UNICEF and the ILO’s conventions on child labour, slave labour and other human rights issues are regulated by working environment legislation.

Our challenge in terms of human rights relates to suppliers of raw materials. Rieber & Søn purchases raw materials from all over the world, also from areas where there is the risk that there is not always full compliance with UNICEF and ILO conventions.

Through control forms and audit programmes Rieber & Søn ensures that, to the extent possible, there is full compliance with these concerns. Our suppliers complete forms in which they confirm that their activities are in accordance with the conventions in force. We also carry out on-the-spot inspections and audits of our suppliers. The conclusions from surveys carried out by Rieber & Søn show that we have no major challenges in these areas.

In respect of Rieber & Søn, the raw materials which raise questions concerning human rights or the environment are cocoa, dehydrated vegetables, fat, oils, rice, condiments and sugar.

Cocoa
Our supplier is heavily involved in the ILO’s work and surveys in West Africa. New surveys from the Child Labour Survey of the Cocoa Sector in West Africa show that in 99 percent of the plantations on the Ivory Coast there is no child labour where children are in full-time employment.

Dehydrated vegetables
Our suppliers are required to confirm that they comply with the ILO convention. We examine the supplier’s documentation and carry out inspections, but we are unable to carry out investigations that go as far as the production of the individual farmers.

Oils and fat
Rieber & Søn Norway has replaced palm oil with rapeseed oil in nearly all our dehydrated products. Reorganisation of this activity was carried out in February 2010. The remainig products (30 out of 500 products) will be finished in the spring og 2012. Some of our business units in other countries face the same challenge and are looking for alternative solutions.

Oljer og fett: Rieber & Søn Norge har byttet ut palmeolje med rapsolje i så å si alle våre tørkede produkter. Omleggingen fant sted i februar 2010. De gjenstående (30 av 500 produkter) blir ferdige våren 2012. Noen av våre virksomheter i andre land står overfor samme utfordring, og har startet arbeidet med å finne alternative løsninger.

Rice, condiments and sugar
Rieber & Søn buys rice, condiments and sugar from multinational suppliers who operate far from the plantations where the raw materials come from. We have no way of checking each producer on our own, but we are working actively to get international industry organisations and agents to deal with this in a satisfactory way.