Nespresso and Starbucks in the storm, they exploit children in the coffee collection

Starbucks and Nespresso have come under fire after it was revealed children under 13 had picked coffee beans for both multi-national companies.The revelation of the alleged child work used by the two giants comes from an investigation by British TV Channel 4.

The children were paid less than £5 a day and worked 40 hours/weeks in deprived conditions, according to the makers of the documentary.So, the 37 million euros earned by Hollywood star George Clooney as Nespresso testimonial are transformed for the actor into a very bitter note. 

"Having grown up and worked on a tobacco farm since I was 12 years old - said Clooney - I am absolutely aware of the complex issues related to agriculture and child labour. That's why I joined the Nespresso Advisory Committee for Sustainability seven years ago, together with the Rainforest Alliance, the Fair Trade International and the Fair Labour Association, with the aim then of improving the lives of farmers".

Guillaume Le Cuff - CEO of the Lausanne-based company that for more than ten years has claimed to be based on environmentally friendly production systems and who has promised to use fully recyclable pods by 2020 - has released a statement regarding Barnett's investigation , in which he claims that the company "has zero tolerance for child labour", and therefore "is unacceptable". 

Le Cuff added that "We have launched a thorough investigation to get to grips with this situation on those plantations. We will not get back to them until the investigation is over”. Guatemala is the tenth largest coffee producer in the world. And it's not the first time Nespresso and Starbucks have been accused of exploitation. A Reuters survey last December uncovered a large forced labour network in Brazil, mostly in the coffee industry that is worth billions of dollars in the Latin American country.