Barry Callebaut has announced that 51% of its raw ingredients were sustainably sourced during its fiscal year 2018/19, in a move to address sustainability challenges in its chocolate supply chain.
Published in Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate Progress Report 2018/19, the company highlighted that it sourced 47% of its cocoa beans and 54% of its other non-cocoa agricultural raw materials sustainably. Following its development, the chocolatier said it is on track to meet its 2025 target: have 100% sustainable ingredients in all its products.
The group sourced its ingredients through schemes such as its own Cocoa Horizon’s programme, and through external organisations including Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and Organic.
The release of its report marks the company’s third progress report since the launch of its chocolate plan in 2016. Forever Chocolate outlined three other targets to be achieved by 2025, that includes removing more than 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty, eradicating child labour and becoming carbon and forest positive.
According to the Swiss chocolatier, during its fiscal year the group have mapped 176,984 farms and their farmers on location and recorded their socio-economic data, to allow Barry Callebaut to offer productivity improvements through business plans and access to farm services such as tools, seedlings and finance.
The report highlighted that 26% of the farmer groups in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana now have systems in place to prevent, monitor and remediate child labour.
In 2018/19 Barry Callebaut reduced its corporate CO2 equivalent (CO2e) footprint by 6.7%, from 9.10 million tonnes to 8.49 million tonnes. This was despite increased production and was largely driven by land use change, reduced CO2e intensity in factories and reduced CO2e intensity in dairy products.
Finally, in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the group has distributed over 1.8 million young cocoa seedlings and almost 750,000 shade trees for replanting. Barry Callebaut states that it has helped to protect 6,280 hectares of primary forest and restored 3,800 hectares by removing illegal cocoa operations and allowing natural forest regeneration.
“In the past fiscal year we focused on big innovative projects that we know will create the tipping point for a sustainable chocolate supply chain,” said Pablo Perversi, chief innovation, sustainability and quality officer of Barry Callebaut.
Perversi added: “Our progress report shows that this focus is working, creating tangible impact on the ground for cocoa farmers, cocoa farming communities and all the other players in our supply chain.”
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