Protecting Children Across Our Supply Chain

Child labor has no place in the production of food or in any business relationship connected to our operations. Fresh Del Monte Produce recognizes that protecting children requires more than a written policy. It calls for responsible sourcing, clear expectations for suppliers, regular risk assessment, effective worker communication, and remediation when concerns arise.

Agricultural supply chains can involve farms, packhouses, transport providers, labor contractors, and other business partners across different countries. Working conditions and legal requirements may vary, yet the responsibility to respect children’s rights remains constant. Our approach is designed to identify vulnerabilities early and support safe, lawful, and dignified work.

Our response to child labor risks in the supply chain is part of a broader commitment to human rights, ethical business practices, and sustainable agriculture. We work to strengthen due diligence while recognizing that prevention depends on collaboration with suppliers, workers, communities, civil society, and other stakeholders.

A Clear Standard For Children’s Rights

Our expectations begin with compliance with applicable laws and internationally recognized labor principles. Children must be protected from work that is illegal, hazardous, interferes with education, or harms their physical or psychological development. Employment decisions must be based on age requirements and lawful documentation, never on assumptions or informal arrangements.

Supplier expectations are communicated through responsible sourcing requirements and business conduct standards. These expectations apply across relevant tiers of the supply chain and cover issues such as minimum working age, forced labor, freedom from discrimination, safe working conditions, wages, working hours, and respectful treatment.

Policies are most effective when they are understood by the people expected to apply them. For this reason, our engagement with suppliers focuses on practical implementation, documentation, worker awareness, and management accountability. A supplier’s responsibility includes monitoring labor contractors and recruitment channels connected to its operations.

Understanding Where Risk Can Occur

Child labor risk is influenced by local economic conditions, access to education, migration patterns, informal employment, and the structure of agricultural work. Seasonal production and subcontracting can create additional complexity if responsibilities are unclear or records are incomplete. Risk-based due diligence helps direct attention to locations, activities, and relationships that may require closer review.

We consider information from internal assessments, supplier engagement, audit findings, grievance channels, legal requirements, and credible external sources. This process supports a more complete view than relying on a single audit or document review. It also helps us identify whether controls are working in practice.

Agriculture is closely connected to environmental and social resilience. Our work to test new crop varieties reflects the need to prepare production systems for changing conditions while maintaining responsible labor practices. Climate pressure, reduced yields, or sudden changes in production can increase household vulnerability, making vigilance around child protection especially important.

Prevention Through Supplier Engagement

Prevention starts before a business relationship is established and continues throughout the relationship. Supplier screening, contractual expectations, self-assessments, risk reviews, and periodic monitoring can help identify gaps in labor management. Higher-risk situations may require additional information, targeted assessments, or direct engagement with responsible managers.

We encourage suppliers to maintain reliable age-verification procedures and personnel records, communicate workplace rules in languages workers understand, and ensure that labor providers follow the same standards. Recruitment practices should be transparent and free from fees or arrangements that could place workers or their families under pressure.

Monitoring is intended to support improvement as well as accountability. When weaknesses are found, we seek to understand their cause, agree on corrective actions, and establish a reasonable timeframe for completion. Repeated or serious failures may lead to escalation under our business relationship requirements.

Responsible Remediation And Safeguarding

A suspected case involving a child must be handled carefully. Removing a child from work without considering the family’s circumstances can create additional risks, including loss of income, unsafe migration, or withdrawal from school. Any response must prioritize the child’s safety, privacy, education, and well-being.

Remediation may involve removing the child from prohibited work, confirming that the child is safe, supporting access to education, and engaging qualified local organizations or authorities where appropriate. The exact response depends on the circumstances, local law, the child’s age, the nature of the work, and the needs of the family.

We expect suppliers to cooperate with investigations and corrective action. Cases should be documented without exposing personal information unnecessarily. Follow-up is essential to confirm that the concern has been addressed and that the child has not simply been moved to another task, supplier, or worksite.

Speaking Up And Strengthening Accountability

Workers and other stakeholders need safe ways to raise concerns. Grievance mechanisms should be accessible, confidential where possible, understandable to people with different levels of literacy, and available without retaliation. Information about reporting channels should be shared during onboarding, training, and supplier engagement.

A credible grievance process gives management insight into problems that may not appear during scheduled visits. Complaints are reviewed according to their seriousness, with attention to safeguarding, confidentiality, evidence preservation, and timely action. Retaliation against anyone who raises a concern in good faith is inconsistent with responsible business conduct.

Accountability also depends on internal ownership. Relevant teams must understand their roles in procurement, farm and facility management, supplier oversight, human resources, legal review, sustainability, and risk management. Progress is strengthened when findings are tracked, recurring issues are analyzed, and leadership receives meaningful information about unresolved risks.

Building Stronger Communities Through Collaboration

Long-term child protection depends on conditions beyond the workplace. Access to quality education, decent work for adults, social protection, healthcare, and reliable transportation can reduce the pressures that contribute to child labor. Our community engagement efforts therefore complement supply chain controls by supporting healthier and more resilient communities.

Partnerships can help address issues that a single company cannot resolve alone. We value cooperation with suppliers, growers, worker representatives, public institutions, nonprofit organizations, and industry groups. Shared learning can improve training, strengthen referral networks, and encourage consistent expectations across agricultural regions.

The connection between sustainable production and community well-being is also visible in the way agricultural assets are managed over time. Our pineapple renewal story illustrates how careful planning can support continuity in farming systems. Stable, responsible operations create a stronger foundation for lawful employment and family well-being.

Priorities For Ongoing Due Diligence

Our work continues as supply chain conditions, regulations, and stakeholder expectations develop. We aim to refine risk assessment, expand awareness of responsible recruitment, improve the quality of supplier data, and strengthen the effectiveness of grievance and remediation processes.

Key priorities include:

• Applying a risk-based approach to supplier and labor-practice monitoring
• Reinforcing minimum-age and age-verification expectations
• Training relevant employees, suppliers, and labor providers on child protection
• Improving access to confidential, worker-friendly reporting channels
• Tracking corrective actions and verifying that remediation protects children over time

Progress requires transparency about both achievements and areas requiring further work. We use lessons from assessments, reports, engagement, and community relationships to improve our systems. Responsible sourcing is an ongoing process, and meaningful results depend on consistent action across every part of the value chain.

Learn more about Fresh Del Monte Produce’s sustainability commitments, ethical business practices, and community initiatives through our corporate responsibility updates. Continued attention from employees, suppliers, workers, and partners helps strengthen protections for children and supports a more responsible future for agriculture.