Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding.
This broad partnership covers a new array of programs aimed at improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and the sustainability of the cocoa sector, from farmer finance to gender and nutrition to landscape protection and crop diversification programs.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO, Barry Callebaut, comments: “We are proud to partner with IDH, a global leader in supply chain sustainability innovations, to promote professional, sustainable cocoa farming. This innovative partnership will help drive the implementation and impact of our cocoa sustainability initiatives. Sustainability is at the heart of our business model and values.”
Joost Oorthuizen, Executive Director of IDH: “It is the willingness of frontrunners like Barry Callebaut’s to innovate and challenge the status quo that will shape the future of sustainable cocoa.”
Through Barry Callebaut’s and IDH’s collaboration on farm and co-operative finance, 60,000 farmers will be able to invest in the long-term productivity of their farms.
The two partners are developing an innovative farm finance solution for cocoa farmers. Under this initiative, Barry Callebaut has already opened 4,000 savings accounts in cooperation with Advans, one of the leading microfinance institutions in West Africa.
Barry Callebaut will participate in IDH’s development of a gender equality and nutrition strategy and jointly fund projects to support the role of women in cocoa communities, diversify cocoa farms and establish systems to commercialize and bring non-cocoa crops/products to market.
Barry Callebaut, in collaboration with IDH and UTZ, will also implement an impact evaluation strategy using Farmer Field Books to allow reliable, high-quality performance measurements of farm data and efficient management of sustainable farming activities.
The approach is based on the Common Data Collection and Management Protocol (CDCMP), which offers training of assessors, data entry and management, and the data analysis at the farmer level, farmer group level and company level.
Finally, through the IDH Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes, Barry Callebaut is testing a sustainable cocoa production system, also in partnership with the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation and the Ivorian forests agency SODEFOR.
This system will balance profitable cocoa production and forest conservation by providing farmers with the productivity and agroforestry packages, while sensitizing the local population about forest protection.
Read more about Barry Callebaut’s sustainability initiatives in the 2014/15 Chocolate Sustainability Report.
