Mondelez International launches new cocoa sustainability initiative

US food and beverage firm Mondelez International has announced a new cocoa sustainability initiative known as Cocoa Life, under which it will invest $400m over the next ten years to improve the livelihoods of 200,000 cocoa farmers and 1 million people in cocoa farming communities.

As part of the initiative, the company will invest $100m in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producing country, in order to help 75,000 farmers double their productivity.

Mondelez International executive vice president Tim Cofer said that Cocoa Life is a holistic approach to cocoa sustainability that will result in a cycle of growth from bean to bar.

"Our mission is to create thriving cocoa communities and help secure the future of the cocoa industry," Cofer added.

Cocoa Life will work with governments, civil society and suppliers to transform the cocoa supply chain.

It is already collaborating with organisations such as the United Nations Development Program, the World Wildlife Fund and Anti-Slavery International to compile a set of principles for success and ways to gauge progress.

The Cocoa Life initiative will seek to create win-win relationships and benefit communities by helping farmers to boost yields and incomes.

It will also work to empower cocoa farming families to create the kind of communities they would like to live in, while encouraging gender equality; take steps to eliminate child labour; make cocoa farming an attractive profession for the next generation; and safeguard the landscapes in which cocoa is grown.

Cocoa Life is based on Mondelez International’s Cadbury Cocoa Partnership in Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and India.

Mondelez noted that in Ghana, the Partnership led to a 20% increase in cocoa yields, 200% increase in household incomes, and 80% increase in government-supported projects during the first phase of the project from 2009 to 2011.

The company is currently expanding its reach to more communities in Ghana, and also extended the Partnership to Dominican Republic in 2011.

In India, Cadbury, a brand owned by Mondelez, has been collaborating with local farmers for over five decades.

Mondelez International was formed following the spin-off of Kraft Foods’ North American grocery operations in October 2012, and its portfolio of brands include Cadbury and Milka chocolate, Jacobs coffee, LU, Nabisco and Oreo biscuits, Tang powdered beverages and Trident gum.

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Image: The Cocoa Life initiative will seek to create win-win relationships and benefit communities by helping farmers to boost yields and incomes. Photo courtesy of Mondelez International.