Mondelez’s Cocoa Life program has partnered with Fairtrade certification and verification body Flocert as part of the supplier’s sustainable cocoa pledge.
Cocoa Life will work with Flocert to verify the quantity of sustainably grown and traded cocoa and provide verification of Cocoa Life payments made to farmer organisations.
The link with Flocert made Mondelez the first chocolate manufacturer to independently verify that farmers were part of a ‘healthy supply chain’, said Cocoa Life director Cathy Pieters, and formed part of the manufacturer’s commitment to “improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and cocoa growing communities”.
“The partnership is the first of its kind in the cocoa sustainability sector and, alongside our link with Harvard University research team, it completes the Cocoa Life verification framework,” said Pieters.
The news comes as concerns about the sustainability of cocoa supplies and “the world running out of chocolate” increasingly make headlines.
Set up in 2012, the $400m Cocoa Life program was launched to play a key part in Mondelez’s aim to source 100% of its cocoa from sustainable sources, but the business has yet to set a timeframe for this goal.
At the end of 2013, Pieters said 10% of cocoa used by Mondelez was sustainably sourced.
“Our aim is to know farmers are benefiting from a healthy supply chain with clear terms of trade, better access to markets, and new ways for their voices to be heard,” she added.
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