The chocolate and cocoa industry has spent more than US$75 million over the last decade in support of cocoa families and communities. In 2009-2010 alone, the industry has spent more than US$40 million on projects across West Africa. Here’s how we are making a difference:
Promotion of acceptable labor practices
- The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) works throughout the region to sensitize cocoa-growing communities on the worst forms of child labor. They do this by first establishing key relationships within the community which then opens the door for dialogue about the dangers cocoa farming children face. This engagement is central to getting cocoa communities to commit to a lasting change through self-monitoring and community-led farmer outreach.
Greater opportunities for economic development
- The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Farmer Field Schools program supports cocoa farmers with practical on-the-ground assistance and agricultural best practices that will help them grow a better quality cocoa crop and more of it. Additionally, farmers learn how to diversify their crops to and how to get them to market easier. As a result, participating farmers are now earning 20% and in some cases 55% more in income.
Industry has engaged with a number of partners and implementers both directly and through organizations such as the World Cocoa Foundation and the International Cocoa Initiative. These partners include: Africare, CARE International, CARITAS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Health International, GTZ, International Fund for Education and Self-Help, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and Winrock International, among many others.
Company Initiatives
Individual companies also have programs designed to create a sustainable supply chain. Following is an overview of several company-led initiatives.
As one of the world’s largest cocoa and chocolate manufacturers, ADM is committed to a sustainable future for cocoa farming. In 2005, ADM launched the Socially & Environmentally Responsible Agriculture Practices (SERAP) Program, which rewards select West African cooperatives committed to implementing sustainable practices. The program seeks to foster collaboration among growers as they work to address social and environmental issues. During the 2008-2009 growing year, 24 co-ops, representing more than 12,300 cocoa farmers participated in the SERAP program. ADM believes that by working with farmers, grower cooperatives, local traders, NGOs, academia, industry partners and governments, we can help improve the lives of cocoa farmers and their communities.
http://www.adm.com/en-US/responsibility/Documents/video_africa.html
http://www.adm.com/en-US/responsibility/2011CR/Pages/cocoa.aspx
“Increasing productivity and improving the quality of the cocoa produced on smallholder farms, particularly in West and Central Africa is one of our main areas of focus. We support farmer training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) including how to improve soil fertility and yields, post-harvest management, disease and pest management, and biodiversity. Higher yields of better quality cocoa mean a higher income for farmers. Equally important is providing improved access to basic health care and education for cocoa farmers and their families in communities where such services are insufficient or unavailable.”
http://www.barry-callebaut.com/5658
Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate has long-standing practices on corporate responsibility. The company has been among the first to initiate a wide variety of activities to ensure cocoa is grown in a sustainable and responsible way to the highest quality possible.
Through Cargill’s training programs the company engages with the cocoa farmers with programs that focus on good farming practices to result in better quality beans and larger crops. It brings higher income to the farmers and their families to ultimately raise their living standards. To reinforce the company’s efforts Cargill has also committed to the UTZ CERTIFIED ‘Good Inside’ cocoa initiative to establish and implement a worldwide certification and traceability system that ensures a sustainable and transparent cocoa supply chain. Cargill investments are working to support improved living standards for cocoa growing farm families across West Africa.
Ferrero supports the protection of human rights and dignity and, wherever possible, uses its influence in order to ensure that existing laws and regulations on human rights are respected worldwide.
Ferrero supports the abolition of exploitation of child labor and consequently requests that its suppliers apply the same principles. To this end, a standard clause is inserted in its contracts in order to ensure that the goods acquired through the suppliers have been obtained and transformed in full compliance with all local and other applicable laws, regulations and norms, as well as with the requirements established by the applicable International Conventions, Agreements and/or Declarations (such as the ILO and UN Conventions and the Human Rights Declaration). Ferrero Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Ferrero is also a participant in the ICI and the WCF Healthy Communities Program.
Improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families in West Africa and other cocoa-growing regions around the world is a major priority for The Hershey Company.
We embrace our responsibility to ensure that the coco we buy is grown and harvested in a sustainable manner. That means encouraging a cocoa supply chain that provides adequate incomes to small cocoa farmers, advances efforts to promote responsible labor in cocoa-farming communities, promotes gender equity and protects and preserves the environment.
We have taken a number of steps as a company and an industry to increase farm-level incomes, build community sustainability and address the troubling issue of child labor in cocoa-producing regions.
During the past ten years, our company and our industry partners have funded programs to:
- Improve incomes for cocoa growing
- farms and communities and promote greater transparency
- Facilitate effective farmer support organizations that facilitate group selling, training and services.
- Promote productive farming practices including improved planting material and crop diversification
- Engage in environmental stewardship efforts that emphasize healthy soil, clean water and integrated pest management
- Develop healthy, sustainable farms and communities based on responsible, safe labor practices and opportunities for women and youth
- Establish farm schools based in cocoa fields and vocational training opportunities for underserved rural youth in cocoa-growing regions
For more information about the Hershey Company and our commitment to corporate social responsibility, please visit www.thehersheycompany.com/social-responsiblity.
The Framework of Action has approved $600,000 project supported by The Hershey Company. The CocoaLink Project – Connecting Cocoa Communities uses innovative mobile technology to deliver agricultural and social information to rural cocoa farmers in Ghana, providing an interactive platform which also enables farmers to ask questions and provide and receive real-time feedback. By working to increase the incomes of households with at risk children and directing messaging on the worst forms of child labor to those households, the project supports the goals of the Framework.
Kraft Foods is committed to the sector. We are interested in seeing the region and its citizens prosper. Both the viability of the cacao crops and success of its farmers are also important to our own long-term success in the region. Our commitment is clear when you look at our cocoa sustainability investment in the sector: $10 million in 2010 and over $70 million for our commitments to date. To learn about our work and investment with many valued partners, e.g., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Cocoa Initiative, and the World Cocoa Foundation, we invite you to visit our website on how we’re Sweetening the Supply of Cocoa.
One of our key investments to the sector is our Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. Launched in 2008, the Partnership is a multi-stakeholder initiative and includes government, NGO, farmer and business input. It is a £45mm investment over 10 years across all of our cocoa origins, including a £30mm investment in Ghana as a key origin. Our vision and approach of the Partnership remain the same, to develop thriving rural cocoa communities that support a sustainable cocoa supply chain by empowering communities to take ownership of their own development.
The Framework of Action has approved $1.548 million through a set of initiatives supported by Kraft Foods. The proposals will be coordinated under the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, a holistic program that supports thriving rural cocoa communities through the improvement of the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and the reduction of child labor in farming families. By working to increase the incomes of households with at risk children and increasing educational access for children in those farming families, the program furthers the goals of the Framework.
Through its Sustainable Cocoa Initiative, Mars Chocolate invests tens of millions of dollars annually in cocoa-focused agricultural research, technology transfer programs to increase yields and income for farmers in Africa and Asia, and certification programs to promote acceptable conditions for farmers in our supply chain. Our guiding principle is to put ‘Farmers First,’ by prioritizing activities through which farmers will achieve higher yields and larger incomes that will in turn support broader social development and better environmental protection.
Mars was the first manufacturer to commit to 100% certified cocoa by 2020, and in 2010, we completed mapping the cocoa genome 2 years early and have since released the genome into the public domain at www.cacaogenome.db. Our Vision for Change program in West Africa is currently working to double or triple yields for 150,000 farmers in the Soubre region of Cote d’Ivoire.
As a supporter of World Cocoa Foundation, International Cocoa Initiative, Sustainable Treecrops Program and the Gates Foundation’s Cocoa Livelihoods Program, Mars recognizes that a sustainable cocoa industry will only come from radical collaboration across the whole sector. For more information, please visit www.cocoasustainability.com or www.mars.com/cocoasustainability.
The Cocoa Plan brings together all of Nestle’s activities to promote sustainable cocoa supply under one banner.
The plan, which is backed by an investment of CHF 110 million, aims to address the key issues facing the cocoa farming communities Nestle works with from an economic, social and environmental perspective. By improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers, the Cocoa Plan aims to improve social conditions in cocoa farming communities .
Through The Cocoa Plan we are building relationships with co-operatives and farmer associations. We are also working with partner organizations such as the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) .
The Cocoa Plan is part of Nestle’s broader approach to Creating Shared Value.