Sustainability in Cocoa Farming
“We are committed towards 100% digital farm-to-factory traceability for all our cocoa beans in our direct sourcing network by 2030”
¡ Deforestation out, regeneration in: Climate change and biodiversity loss are serious threats to nature, and therefore also to industries. Aligned with the EU Green Deal and the global UN Conference of the Parties (COP) as key collective agendas for climate neutrality and nature regeneration, we need to rapidly scale nature-based practices so that nature and people – especially farmers – reap the benefits. ¡ Social equity and justice: Progress is only made when we forge social justice, respect human rights and drive equality. Strong communities are a key factor in preventing challenges such as child labor. Here, women leaders are a promising, yet often forgotten, force of change. At Cargill, we believe that advancing women’s leadership advances the sector at large. It’s time to make gender parity the norm, throughout the cocoa chain. ¡ Cocoa for a living: Cocoa is an important source of employment and income for rural populations, yet too many cocoa farmers do not earn a living income. Profitability for households depends on multiple factors, such as productivity, business skills, access to resources and farm gate prices, which all need to be taken into account. Access to tailored farm management coaching, finance, such as micro loans, and market linkages is key for a farmer’s business case and a crucial element of the Cargill Cocoa Promise.
Looking ahead
Sustainability is becoming an increasing driver for consumers who see their product choices as a reflection of who they are and what they value. Consumers want to see the issues they
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care about reflected in the brands they buy. Cargill’s proprietary research suggests consumers are hungry – and willing to pay – for products made with responsibly sourced cocoa. In a survey of more than 7,000 consumers across 10 European countries, we found 66% of consumers factor sustainability into their food and beverage purchase decisions, with an even higher percentage of frequent chocolate purchasers, nearly three- quarters, reporting they prefer to buy sustainable products. Companies like Cargill,
while not consumer facing,
have a unique role to play in enabling our customers to be successful. ”Together we can innovate to bring new products and solutions to market, and build trust with consumers,” Kate says.
Climate and environmental degradation is the future. It will make cocoa farming even more marginal and exacerbate the social dilemmas in chocolate. “But it will also offer giant opportunities for an industry that could deliver net benefits to climate and environmental regeneration. At Original Beans, we run a nearly 100% climate-positive chocolate business in all three so-called scopes climate emissions. We protect precious forests. We pay our growers stable living incomes. It is possible and that’s the great virtuous promise of chocolate. To regenerate what we consume, as we put it in our company’s mission statement,” Philipp says positively. In order for effective partnerships to flourish, the sharing of learnings at an industry level will also be key. This will involve honest dialogue, and a profiling of successes and failures to ensure that cocoa farmers as a whole stand to benefit from improvements to their income, regardless of the specific trader, brand or retailer they happen to be selling into.
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