Nestlé, the world’s largest foodmaker, will triple its cocoa sustainability funding to SFr1.3bn ($1.4bn) over eight years, including direct payouts to African cocoa farmers in a bid to remove child labour from its supply chain.

The Swiss group said it was focusing on poverty as the root cause of child labour. It will be the first multinational food company to pay farmers directly, starting in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two largest producers of the key ingredient for chocolate. The company, whose brands include Kit Kat and Aero, will distribute payments of up to SFr500 a year to households from whom it sources its cocoa.

The chocolate industry has been dogged by accusations of failing to address the use of child labour in its supply chains. Cocoa is mainly grown by smallholder farmers in tropical Africa, Latin America and Asia, where children are often used in tending to cocoa trees and harvesting the fruit.