Callebaut announces progress towards sustainable chocolate

Barry Callebaut, the manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, announced that as of December 6th that 44 per cent of the cocoa and 44 per cent of the other ingredients that they use for its products are sustainably sourced. 

Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group, said in a press release: “With now 44 per cent of our ingredients coming from sustainable sources we are well on track to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025. Through our sourcing, processing and sales, we are driving change, supporting cocoa farming communities and driving the uptake of sustainably sourced chocolate”.

Barry Callebaut published its Forever Chocolate Progress Report 2017/18, listing the progress the Group has made towards its target of making sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025.

Forever Chocolate is based on four ambitious targets, to be achieved by 2025, that address the largest sustainability challenges in the chocolate supply chain.

1. Lift more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty
2. Eradicate child labour from its supply chain
3. Become carbon and forest positive
4. Have 100 per cent sustainable ingredients in all its products

In order to lift more than 500,000 farmers out of poverty, Barry Callebaut announced that it is building datasets with detailed location, agronomic, economic and social survey data on the cocoa farms in its supply chain. More than 130,000 farms have already been mapped.

These unique datasets allow Barry Callebaut to ensure that the mapped cocoa farms are not located in protected forest areas. In addition, they allow the Group to create tailor-made sustainability programs to help address the key issues of the mapped cocoa farming communities. As part of its work with farmers, the Group distributed over 2.1 million young cocoa seedlings, as well as close to 400,000.