The manifold challenges on the road to #ForeverChocolate

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Cocoa Snapshot - The manifold challenges on the road to #ForeverChocolate

The manifold challenges on the road to #ForeverChocolate

Story
A recent study revealed the challenges cocoa farmers face in Côte d’Ivoire. These are manifold, difficult to overcome and stem from the fact that a majority of farmers still live below the national poverty line. We summarized the reports’ insight into an infographic, which also is indicative of the KPI’s we will continue to track in our Cocoa Horizons program.
Cocoa Snapshot - The manifold challenges on the road to #ForeverChocolate

"Cocoa farmers' agricultural practices and well-being in Côte d'Ivoire" is a comprehensive study published by Barry Callebaut together with the French Development Agency in February 2017. The report includes insights on the challenges faced by cocoa farmer households in Ivory Coast. These challenges span areas across productivity and community development. The results are based on information gathered via surveys across 326 cocoa farming communities with whom Barry Callebaut implemented sustainability programs between 2013 and 2015. The results have enabled us to better tailor and improve the training and services we offer men and women to increase farm productivity and household incomes, ensure children are in school, and help lift cocoa farming communities out of poverty.

Cocoa Snapshot - The manifold challenges on the road to #ForeverChocolate

As can be seen in the Cocoa Snapshot infographic, the challenges we face are not small: Farmers are living in poverty, a direct result of low cocoa yields on small, aging farms. Additionally, community infrastructure is lacking and only a small percentage of women are cocoa farmers and earn an income.

This is why we have created a movement for the entire industry to join us in scaling impact and creating a sustainable chocolate future, to address the massive challenges affecting farmers and their communities, and ensure that chocolate will be around, forever.

The infographic represents key data extracted from the comprehensive report which Barry Callebaut aims to measurably impact. The Cocoa Horizons Program will track KPIs in order to report on these topics year on year and eventually measure the impact of its program. A non-profit organization established by Barry Callebaut in 2015, the Cocoa Horizons Foundation has a mission to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable, entrepreneurial farming, improved productivity, and community development.

The Cocoa Horizons methodology will also be modified in order to track and achieve Barry Callebaut’s new Forever Chocolate commitments. Forever Chocolate is Barry Callebaut’s plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm. By 2025, Barry Callebaut will:

  • Eradicate child labor from its supply chain

  • Lift more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty

  • Be carbon and forest positive, and

  • Have 100% sustainable ingredients in all of its products

Leigh Pezzicara

Leigh Pezzicara

Responsible for the Global Marketing of Barry Callebaut's Sustainability initiatives, Leigh has a Masters in Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management and a passion for healthy, sustainable living. An outdoor enthusiast, she can be found cycling, ski touring, trail running, etc., etc. when she's not traveling (and even when she is).

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