Cargill unveils portal to boost supply chain transparency

Cargill has launched CocoaWise, a digital portal for food and beverage manufacturers, which aims to boost transparency in the company’s cocoa supply chain.

CocoaWise provides the company’s cocoa and chocolate customers with fast, easy access to information on the origin of products they source from Cargill’s direct supply chain.

“As one of the world’s leading cocoa and chocolate producers, we sit at the centre of the cocoa sector and connect all the players in the value chain, from working hand-in-hand with the farmers to sustainably providing high-quality products to our customers,” said Harold Poelma, president of Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business.

“With cutting-edge technologies, like CocoaWise, we are able to strengthen this collaboration and move the industry forward together towards a more transparent and sustainable cocoa supply chain benefitting both farmers and customers.”

The portal pulls information from a centralised data platform, CocoaWise 360, which is fed from a suite of digital tools.  

Designed to increase transparency and traceability while enhancing cocoa farming practices, these tools include:

• CocoaWise BeanTracker – Provides a system for cocoa cooperatives to physically track the cocoa beans they manage back to individual farms via cocoa bag barcodes, in order to prevent beans from deforested areas entering Cargill’s supply chain.
• CocoaWise eFinance – Comprises mobile money solutions provided to farmers so that they can be assured of being paid ‘fairly, accurately and securely’.
• CocoaWise ProFarm – A set of digital tools supporting farmers to make informed decisions based on agronomy, up-to-date weather and market access information. In addition to helping farmers to boost productivity, this system gathers farm data, such as geolocation, crop health, household and income data, to communicate with farmers.
• CocoaWise Insight – A monitoring and evaluation system used by Cargill to track progress in achieving cocoa sustainability goals. It includes detailed data on factors such as tree density, cultivation methods being used, and community-focused data, including child labour monitoring.

Taco Terheijden, sustainability director for Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business, added: “For years, we have been putting technology to work to help the 210,000 farmers in the five countries we purchase our cocoa.

“This crop year alone, we invested an additional $3 million in traceability initiatives that allowed us to bring the data from our supply chain together in more powerful ways and help farmers enhance agricultural practices.”