Guatemala plays a major role in the global sugar trade, as the world’s fourth largest sugar exporter and the third leading exporter of sugar to the United States in 2015. Verité chose to carry out rapid appraisal research on labor conditions on Guatemalan sugarcane plantations due to Guatemala’s important role in the global sugar trade and indications that workers employed on sugarcane plantations were vulnerable to exploitation. Past studies on labor conditions among Guatemalan and Central American agricultural workers, as well as Verité’s past research in the Guatemalan coffee and palm oil sectors, indicated a high risk of labor violations.

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Verité is a global, nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure that people worldwide work under safe, fair, and legal conditions. Verité works with the largest corporations in the world to illuminate labor rights violations in their global supply chains and to resolve them to the benefit of companies and workers alike.