Barry Callebaut has committed to a ‘manifesto’ of promises, designed to make the company’s chocolate 100% sustainably sourced by 2025.
The strategy – called Forever Chocolate – is built around pledges to eradicate child labour from the supply chain, lift more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty, use only sustainable ingredients in all of the business’ products, and become ‘carbon and forest positive’.
The group said that it was ‘committed to addressing key sustainability challenges in the chocolate supply chain’ and has given itself nine years to deliver on the promises. It intends to work with governments and NGOs, consumers and clients to find solutions to the challenges currently posed in the supply chain.
The manifesto, titled Forever Chocolate, will help Barry Callebaut strengthen its existing action on sustainability.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: “We have been pioneering sustainability in cocoa and chocolate for many years, and we have made great progress. But despite all our efforts, only 23% of the cocoa beans we source are from sustainability programs.
“We are determined to step change this and have 100% of our chocolate and its ingredient sustainably sourced by 2025.
“The targets we have set ourselves after a thorough materiality analysis are bold, and we recognise that we do not have all the answers. What we know for sure is that we cannot reach these targets by ourselves.
“That is why we intend to start a movement that also includes governments, NGOs, consumers and our customers. Sustainable chocolate is as much about governments creating an enabling policy environment and enforcing legislation, NGOs creating awareness and consumers making sustainable choices, as it is about industry commitment and investment.”
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