A Tribunal into Nestlé malpractice was held in Bern, Switzerland on 29 October 2005. Trade unionists from Colombia presented evidence of human rights abuses, maltreatment of workers, re-labelling of expired milk and environmental damage.

Baby Milk Action attended the Tribunal and recorded interviews with members of the union, which will be posted shortly.

A researcher for the union spoke of how Nestlé's strategies to dominate the dairy and coffee industries have forced 300,000 families off the land,
150,000 in each sector. Those who continue to produce for Nestlé have seen their incomes collapse.

Asked about Nestlé's Fairtrade product - Partners' Blend, launched in the UK last month - and the company's claim that this is the latest example of how it cares about its suppliers, the researcher said: "This is a big joke. They are lying to the people."

Nestlé's Fairtrade product is sourced from 200 farmers in El Salvador and a cooperative in Ethiopia, perhaps benefiting 3,000 farmers. Over 3 million coffee farmers are dependent on Nestlé and remain outside the Fairtrade system. While Nestlé's profits have soared - reportedly making 26% on a jar of coffee (much more than other products) - farmers are driven into poverty as Nestlé and the other big processor play them off against each other.

Find out what is really going on by listening to the interview at:

 http://www.babymilkaction.org/ram/broadcasts.html#colombiafairtrade

This also links to a past interview with campaigners in Sri Lanka who report on Nestlé's destruction of the indigenous dairy industry using similar tactics to those seen in Colombia.