In a speech to be delivered on January 1 entitled "No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters," the pope will say that despite the financial crisis, consumers should think twice before buying "items which may have been produced by exploiting others."
For their part, businesses "have a duty to be vigilant that forms of subjugation or human trafficking do not find their way into the distribution chain."
His message, published by the Vatican today, slams "the growing scourge of man's exploitation by man", an "abominable phenomenon" covering everything from forced prostitution to child soldiers and slave labour in factories.
He notes that slave labour and trafficking "often require the complicity of intermediaries", pointing the finger at "law enforcement personnel, state officials, or civil and military institutions."
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According to the 2014 Global Slavery index, published last month, nearly 36 million men, women and children are trapped in modern-day slavery, the definition of which ranges from forced marriages to people coerced into prostitution, fighting wars or manual labour like picking cotton.
The 77-year-old pope calls for better cooperation between countries to combat "the transnational networks of organised crime" and bemoans the "context of general indifference" in which tales of slavery are heard.
"I think also of persons forced into prostitution, many of whom are minors, as well as male and female sex slaves women forced into marriage, those sold for arranged marriages and those bequeathed to relatives of deceased husbands," he says.