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Barry Callebaut has entered a three-year partnership with Arla Foods to reduce emissions from dairy used in its chocolate and food ingredient supply chains, beginning with skimmed milk powder sourced from the UK.

The collaboration is Barry Callebaut’s first dairy partnership focused on reducing on-farm emissions and forms part of the chocolate manufacturer’s wider Net Zero roadmap.

Under the agreement, Arla will provide Barry Callebaut with annual farm-level primary carbon footprint data linked to the dairy volumes supplied to the company. The data is intended to improve visibility of Scope 3 emissions and help identify opportunities to accelerate emissions-reduction measures across farms in the companies’ shared supply chain.

The partnership will operate through Arla’s Farm Ahead Customer Partnership programme, which connects dairy customers with farm-level sustainability data and initiatives designed to support emissions reductions.

Dairy is a significant area of focus within Barry Callebaut’s efforts to lower the footprint of its broader value chain. The company said the initiative will help it move beyond carbon measurement towards practical decarbonization measures at farm level.

Tilmann Silber, head of Net Zero at Barry Callebaut, said: “Decarbonising dairy is essential to reducing our carbon footprint and this partnership is a testament to our commitment to driving meaningful progress on our Net Zero journey.”

Silber continued: “By working closely with partners like Arla, we can increase transparency in our dairy supply chain and accelerate the development of scalable decarbonization initiatives that support our Scope 3 reduction targets and contribute to ongoing sustainability efforts in the food chain.”

A central element of the partnership will be the use of incentive payments for farmers implementing practices aimed at reducing emissions.

The companies said the programme will combine primary farm-level carbon footprint reporting with recognised greenhouse gas and dairy carbon methodologies. This is intended to provide a more measurable basis for identifying and supporting emissions-reduction activity across the supply chain.

Gabriela Aramayo, responsible sourcing lead for dairy at Barry Callebaut, said: “Dairy is one of the most complex categories to reduce carbon footprint and meaningful progress requires close collaboration across the entire value chain.”

She added: “What makes this initiative particularly important is the ability to connect climate ambition with concrete action at farm level through long term engagement with suppliers and farmers.”

Arla said the partnership will also support the actions of its farmer owners while providing Barry Callebaut with data for its farmer owners will providing Barry Callebaut with data for its sustainability reporting.

Catherine Konge Varming, senior director of sustainable innovation and development at Arla, said: “We are pleased to work closely together with Barry Callebaut on our shared goal to reduce emissions from dairy. Through the partnership, we can further support the actions our farmer owners are taking to produce high-quality dairy as efficiently while providing valuable data for Barry Callebaut’s reporting purposes.”

The dairy initiative is part of Barry Callebaut’s broader strategy to reduce emissions throughout its value chain and develop lower carbon solutions for customers.

The company said the partnership will contribute to its Net Zero Chocolate Solutions, which are designed to help customers reduce the end-to-end footprint of cocoa and chocolate products through targeted supply chain partnerships.

By linking customer demand, supplier engagement, farm-level data and financial incentives, the companies are positioning the initiative as a model that could potentially be scaled to other supply chains, though neither has disclosed the targets for the partnership or the volume of dairy covered by the initial agreement.