From the fields to the multinationals: how slave labor sustains profits in the coffee industry
Research shows how workers are being exploited in the production of coffee, while international companies ignore complaints and continue to profit from flaws in supply chains and licensing schemes.
Foto: Lela Beltrão/Repórter Brasil
Elisabete Vitor (58), started working in the coffee plantations at eight years of age. The routine on the farm was exhausting for an adult, but far more so for a child. Throughout her life, she alternated farm work with domestic work (between harvests). She was always aware that the relationship between landowners and rural workers was unequal. It was, however, only when she received a leaflet from a trade union, explaining her rights, that she understood she was in a situation analogous to slavery.
“What they did to our people in the past is still happening, but there are still courageous people (who stand up to the situation). What is a woman’s life worth in the coffee fields?” Wonders Elisabete, a member of the Articulation of Rural Workers of the State of Minas Gerais (Adere-MG), during the launch of the study ‘Slave labour in the coffee industry: from the farms to the multinationals’, which took place in April at Armazém do Campo, in São Paulo (SP).
Read the three sections of the study:
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Slave labor in coffee: from farms to multinationals – Part 1
Slave labor in coffee: from farms to multinationals – Part 2
Slave labor in coffee: from farms to multinationals – Part 3
Brazilian legislation uses the concept “conditions analogous to slavery” or “work analogous to slavery” to refer to this situation. Article 149 of the Penal Code outlines four situations that constitute a crime: forced labor, debt bondage, degrading conditions and exhausting working hours. The penalty is imprisonment for between 2 and 8 years, as well as a fine.
Even with this legislation, thousands of Brazilian workers still face degrading routines, unsuitable housing, exhausting working hours and a lack of basic rights. Since 1995, over 65 thousand people have been rescued from conditions analogous to slavery in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Labor. It was reported that 3,240 workers were freed in 2023, the highest number since 2009. Whilst in 2024, 2,004 rescues were recorded. The formal abolition of slavery in 1888 did not see the eradication of slavery in practice. It merely adapted to the workings of modern-day agribusiness.
Exploitation in the coffee cycle
In recent years, the coffee industry – the sector in which Elisabete has experience – has been among those with the most cases of slave labor in Brazil. In 2024, 214 people were rescued in this sector. The majority of the cases were recorded in Minas Gerais, the principal coffee producing state in the country.
According to Adere-MG, during the coffee harvest (from May to September), the southern region of Minas receives migrants from Vale do Jequitinhonha and from Northeastern states. People dream of earning enough to sustain their families, but in most cases, they are faced with degrading conditions and either no pay or insufficient pay.
“During the harvest, you go to communities in the countryside of Bahia or Vale do Jequitinhonha and you only see women, children and elderly people. The men have migrated to the coffee regions and many of them end up being enslaved.” Said Jorge Ferreira, director and coordinator of Adere-MG during the launch.
Jorge speaks from experience as he was a victim of slave labor when he was 13, 17 and 21 years old, on farms, in bakeries and in quarries. “I spent my life fighting slave labor without realising I had been a victim of it myself. I only became aware of this 18 years later when I watched the film, Pureza. You normalize violence and stop seeing yourself as a person.”
How the supply chains perpetuate abuses
The study, ‘Slave Labor in the coffee industry: from the farms to the multinationals’ is divided into three sections and reveals how the system of exploitation is sustained: irregularities in the supply chains; illegal outsourcing; ineffective licensing and a state that often fails to carry out efficient inspections. This study is the result of a partnership between Conectas Human Rights and the global project, Mind the Gap, led by the Dutch organization SOMO.
According to Jorge, public policies should be constructed with the victims. “At Adere, we want to build public policies with the victims rather than for them. Otherwise, we will be talking about slavery until we’re old and grey.” He also stresses the role of non-governmental organizations and civil society, warning that the commitment to opposing slave labor needs to be effectively deepened.
Legal loopholes and corporate shielding
The first section of the study shows how multi-nationals take advantage of gaps in Brazilian legislation and the lack of effective tracking mechanisms to distance themselves from violations. The problem is not just the farms. Large exporters operate under a profit-driven logic which disregards human rights.
Despite progress in fighting slave labor in recent decades, Brazil still faces serious challenges in guaranteeing transparency in the supply chains and ensuring corporate due diligence, areas where legislation is still inadequate.
The controversial role of licensing bodies
In this scenario, licensing bodies have a controversial role. Instead of ensuring respect for human rights, many complicate the supply chains and provide a false sense of compliance. Certification seals, issued without robust independent verification, end up working as legal and reputational shields for large companies.
This weakness in self-regulation, revealed by failures in external audits and licensing schemes, not only provides illusory assurances of compliance but also hinders necessary investigations and interventions. As a result, multinationals rely on these licenses to outsource responsibility and conceal violations, making it harder for victims to access reparation mechanisms.
Corporate shielding strategies
The second part of the study analyses corporate strategies used to create and uphold governance loopholes that stand in the way of corporate accountability. The analysis is based on a complaint filed with Brazil’s National Contact Point (NCP) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against six major global coffee companies.
The report also contains recommendations for the public and private sectors to improve human rights governance mechanisms in Brazil and prevent further violations.
Flawed inspections
Finally, the third section of the report focuses specifically on the global coffee value chain. The aim is to understand Brazil’s position on the international landscape, the profiles of the victims and employers and the connections between multinationals and cases of slave labor and other rights violations on coffee farms.
The text outlines the main links in the coffee supply chain both in Brazil and overseas, followed by an overview of the violations associated with the coffee sector in recent years – particularly those related to housing and working conditions. It goes on to show the connections between slave labor and the global coffee value chain. The report emphasizes the complaints filed by Conectas and Adere-MG against large companies in the sector aiming to safeguard workers at the base of the supply chain, promote good practice and ensure reparation for victims of slave labor.
“The use of enslaved labor in coffee production, principally of Black people, dates back to the economic and social formation of Brazil. Coffee was one of the main products of the Brazilian economy during the colonial period and drove the trafficking of millions of enslaved Africans to the country in the 19th century.” It says in the text.
Complaints filed with the National Contact Point (PCN)
In 2018, Conectas and Adere-MG filed a complaint with Brazil’s National Contact Point regarding cases of slave labor on coffee farms in southern Minas Gerais – a region that supplies multinationals such as Nestlé, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Illy.
The NCP, the OECD mechanism responsible for promoting the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, accepted part of the complaint, but lacks effective monitoring tools.
Only Nestlé and Dunkin’ Donuts agreed to address the matter. McDonald’s and JDE refused to negotiate, while the cases involving Starbucks and Illy were dismissed with no possibility of appeal.
Nestlé, however, announced measures such as external audits, consultations with worker representatives and the creation of regional forums to raise awareness. They also committed to publicizing the Federal government’s reporting channel ‘Sistema Ypê’.
Hope through the collective struggle
For Elisabete, Jorge and so many other workers, hope of breaking the cycle of exploitation lies in reporting and organizing and in collective pressure. In the words of Jorge: “80% of the victims of slave labor in the countryside are Black people. We are the heirs of the misery of the slave ships, but that misery will not go unchallenged.”
