Dear Sir / Madam,

I have recently learnt about children who are trafficked and forced to work on cocoa plantations in Cote d'Ivoire.

Can you confirm or deny that Mars sources from these farms? Can you tell me exactly where your cocoa beans are harvested? I know it is true that cocoa beans from different farms and different countries are mixed together after they've been harvested.  My assumption has to be that there's a very real chance that trafficked child labor is used to make your chocolate.

As a chocolate consumer I need you to tell me that you are not buying beans from farms using exploitative child labor. Such action would clearly be at odds with three of your company's great core principles: Mutuality, Responsibility, and Freedom.

I know you signed the 2001 Harkin-Engel Protocol and some small-scale projects were launched as a result. But these projects aren't even close to meeting your promise to stop forced labour and trafficking in the harvesting of West African cocoa beans. Also, the 2005 deadline of the Protocol was missed and then postponed until July 2008. This deadline was reached but only because the hard most meaningful parts of the Protocol were redefined or taken out altogether.

I know your company is involved in the UTZ Certified process, but as you have not actually committed to buying UTZ's beans once the project starts, it hardly qualifies as a real commitment to stopping the use of trafficked children

I am also aware of your iMPACT programme. While this is a step in the right direction, it is still a long way off the commitment to ending child trafficking in the cocoa industry; a promise given eight years ago.

Your company is involved in some good work. But it's too little, too late. I want to buy chocolate that is traffic-free. I want to buy chocolate which lives up to your principles of Mutuality, Responsibility and Freedom. This process also needs independent verification to check that you are doing what you say you are doing.

When will you be able to assure me that this is the case so I can eat your chocolate bars again?