Cocoa Sustainability: A Comprehensive Report on Barry Callebaut, Cargill Gerkens, and Olam DeZaan (Review Until End of 2024)
Introduction
Cocoa sustainability has become a cornerstone of the global chocolate industry, reflecting the pressing need to address environmental, social, and economic challenges associated with cocoa production. Leading players in the cocoa and chocolate supply chain—Barry Callebaut, Cargill Gerkens, and Olam DeZaan—have been at the forefront of sustainability initiatives. This report provides an in-depth analysis of their sustainability strategies, achievements, and ongoing efforts to create a more sustainable cocoa sector. It also examines the challenges they face and their efforts to align with global sustainability standards.
Barry Callebaut: Sustainability Ambitions
Barry Callebaut, one of the largest cocoa and chocolate manufacturers globally, has set ambitious sustainability goals through its “Forever Chocolate” initiative. Launched in 2016, the program aims to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025. The company’s approach focuses on four key areas:
Eradicating Child Labor:
Barry Callebaut employs a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in collaboration with suppliers and NGOs. As of 2023, the company has expanded this system to cover over 230,000 cocoa farmers in its supply chain.
The company works with community organizations to provide education, vocational training, and income diversification opportunities for families to reduce child labor dependency.
Barry Callebaut has partnered with organizations like the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) to scale the implementation of child labor monitoring across its supply chain.
Lifting Farmers Out of Poverty:
The company’s strategy emphasizes income diversification, access to finance, and productivity improvements. Barry Callebaut supports farmers with training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and provides high-yielding, disease-resistant cocoa seedlings.
Through its direct sourcing programs, Barry Callebaut ensures that farmers receive premium prices for sustainably produced cocoa.
The company collaborates with financial institutions to provide micro-loans to farmers, enabling investment in farm productivity.
Achieving a Carbon and Forest Positive Footprint:
Barry Callebaut aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by increasing the use of renewable energy and promoting agroforestry.
The company actively supports reforestation projects, planting over two million trees annually in cocoa-growing regions.
Partnerships with initiatives like the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) aim to restore degraded landscapes, halt deforestation, and promote sustainable land use practices.
Sustainable Ingredients:
Ensuring 100% sustainable cocoa and chocolate involves certification programs (e.g., Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade) and direct sourcing from verified sustainable farms.
The company’s transparency reports highlight progress toward achieving 100% sustainable ingredient sourcing.
Cargill Gerkens: Driving Sustainability in Cocoa
Cargill Gerkens, the cocoa and chocolate division of Cargill, has embedded sustainability into its operations through the “Cargill Cocoa Promise.” This initiative focuses on improving farmer livelihoods, ensuring transparency in the supply chain, and conserving the environment.
Improving Farmer Livelihoods:
Cargill has invested in training programs that reach over 200,000 farmers annually. These programs focus on agronomy, business skills, and climate-smart agriculture.
The company’s digital tools, such as FarmForce, enable farmers to track their yields, input usage, and income, improving decision-making and transparency.
Cargill’s initiatives aim to create a stable and secure income for farmers by encouraging crop diversification and providing financial literacy training.
Supply Chain Transparency:
Cargill employs blockchain technology to trace cocoa beans from farm to factory, ensuring every step of the supply chain is visible. By 2025, the company aims to achieve 100% traceability.
The “Sustainably Sourced” program aligns with global standards like ISO 34101, ensuring that all cocoa meets rigorous sustainability criteria.
Transparency reports detail the impacts of sustainability projects on farmer incomes, education, and environmental outcomes.
Environmental Conservation:
Cargill’s agroforestry projects promote tree planting on cocoa farms to increase biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
The company actively works to combat deforestation by collaborating with initiatives like the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and regional governments.
Research and development initiatives focus on improving soil health and promoting sustainable land management practices.
Olam DeZaan: Holistic Sustainability Approach
Olam DeZaan, a leader in premium cocoa production, has positioned sustainability at the core of its operations. Through its “Cocoa Compass” strategy, Olam aims to achieve significant milestones by 2030.
Economic Empowerment:
Olam’s initiatives prioritize increasing farmers’ net incomes by at least 20% through yield improvements, market access, and diversification of income streams.
The company provides financial literacy training, access to microcredit, and support for community-based savings groups, enabling farmers to invest in their farms and improve household resilience.
Environmental Stewardship:
Olam’s environmental initiatives include climate-smart farming techniques, water conservation, and the promotion of shade-grown cocoa to preserve biodiversity.
The company actively works to eliminate deforestation in its supply chain and supports restoration projects in cocoa-growing regions.
Olam uses satellite monitoring and artificial intelligence to track deforestation and soil health, enabling data-driven interventions.
Social Well-being:
Olam invests in community development programs that enhance education, healthcare, and gender equity.
By collaborating with NGOs, Olam implements CLMRS to identify and address child labor in its supply chain, reaching over 150,000 households.
The company’s women empowerment initiatives aim to increase the participation of women in cocoa farming and decision-making roles.
Innovation and Technology:
Olam leverages satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor deforestation and farm productivity.
Digital platforms such as AtSource provide transparency by tracking the environmental and social footprint of cocoa. AtSource+ enables customers to measure their own sustainability impacts.
Challenges and Progress
While significant progress has been made, challenges persist, including the scalability of monitoring systems, persistent poverty among smallholder farmers, and addressing regional variations in sustainability adoption.
Despite robust programs, issues like deforestation, climate change adaptation, and child labor require further collaborative efforts with governments and NGOs. Ensuring farmer adoption of new technologies and practices remains an ongoing challenge.
While Olam’s approach is comprehensive, challenges include aligning global sustainability goals with local realities, such as traditional farming practices and infrastructure limitations.
Cocoa Sustainability Strategies: A Comparative Analysis of Barry Callebaut, Cargill Gerkens, and Olam DeZaan
The sustainability programs of Barry Callebaut, Cargill’s Gerkens Cocoa, and deZaan (part of ofi) each articulate distinct visions, missions, and goals, reflecting their unique approaches to fostering sustainability within the cocoa industry.
Barry Callebaut: "Forever Chocolate" Strategy
Vision: Barry Callebaut envisions being “the heart and engine for the global cocoa and chocolate industry,” with a commitment to making sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025.
Mission: The company aims to generate sustainable earnings over time and create long-term value for all stakeholders, embedding sustainability into the core of its business strategy.
Goals: Barry Callebaut’s “Forever Chocolate” initiative focuses on four key targets to achieve by 2025:
Eradicate Child Labor: Eliminate child labor from its supply chain.
Prosperous Farmers: Lift more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty.
Thriving Nature: Become carbon and forest positive.
Sustainable Ingredients: Use 100% sustainable ingredients in all products.
Cargill's Gerkens Cocoa: "Cargill Cocoa Promise"
Vision: Gerkens Cocoa, under Cargill, envisions a future where goodness is shared by all, connecting stakeholders across the cocoa supply chain to drive lasting sustainable change.
Mission: The mission is to accelerate progress toward a transparent global cocoa supply chain, enabling cocoa farmers and their communities to achieve better incomes and living standards sustainably, and ensuring a sustainable supply of cocoa and chocolate products.
Goals: Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Gerkens has defined five sustainability goals:
Farmer Livelihoods: Provide over 210,000 farmers with coaching and training on good agricultural practices.
Community Well-being: Increase child labor monitoring and remediation systems.
Protect Our Planet: Enhance GPS mapping to prevent deforestation.
Consumer Confidence: Achieve full farm-to-factory traceability of the direct cocoa supply chain.
Transformation, Together: Forge new partnerships with sector stakeholders to drive collective impact.
deZaan (ofi): "Cocoa Compass"
Vision: deZaan’s sustainability vision emphasizes prosperous farmers and farming systems, aiming to lift cocoa farmers out of extreme poverty and help them achieve a living income that supports more than just survival.
Mission: As part of ofi’s Cocoa Compass strategy, deZaan is committed to producing its range of professional products sustainably, contributing to the broader goals of the Cocoa Compass, which aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals: Cocoa Compass sets measurable targets for 2030 in three key areas:
Focused on Farmers: Enable 150,000 cocoa farmers in the supplier network to achieve a living income.
Empowered to Grow: Eliminate child labor from the supply chain and ensure all cocoa farmers’ children have access to education.
Investing in Nature: Protect forests by increasing tree carbon stock and achieve a 30% reduction in natural capital costs.
Comparative Analysis
1. Focus Areas:
Barry Callebaut emphasizes certification, direct farmer support, and reforestation.
Cargill prioritizes technology-driven traceability, large-scale farmer training, and environmental conservation.
Olam integrates economic, social, and environmental aspects into its holistic strategy.
2. Technological Integration:
- Cargill leads in blockchain and traceability tools, while Olam’s AtSource platform is a benchmark for transparency.
- Barry Callebaut’s CLMRS is a robust model for addressing child labor and community engagement.
3. Environmental Goals:
- All three companies focus on agroforestry and deforestation, with Olam taking a proactive role in biodiversity conservation and Cargill investing in sustainable land management.
4. Challenges:
- Common challenges include systemic poverty, ensuring traceability, and addressing climate change impacts on cocoa farming.
Conclusion
Barry Callebaut, Cargill Gerkens, and Olam DeZaan have made significant strides in cocoa sustainability, demonstrating leadership and innovation in addressing complex global challenges. While progress is evident, achieving a truly sustainable cocoa sector requires enhanced collaboration among stakeholders, increased investment in farmer empowerment, and ongoing commitment to transparency and environmental stewardship. By leveraging their unique strengths and aligning efforts, these companies can drive transformative change in the cocoa supply chain, ensuring a sustainable future for the industry and the communities it serves.
SOSA. Company is a leading supplier of high-quality raw materials for the food, ice cream and dairy, beverage, cake, chocolate, and cocoa product industries in Iran. We dominate each stage of the value chain, starting from the procurement of primary materials.
Support
info@sosa-conf.com
021-88946055
All rights belong to Company SOSA