Barry Callebaut Group has pledged to help farmers improve their cocoa yields to improve farmer productivity.
The chocolate manufacturer published its Cocoa Sustainability Report, where it outlined plans to improve education for cocoa farmers.
Juergen Steinemann, chief executive of the Barry Callebaut Group, said: “In order to achieve this faster and with more impact, we implement and push the CocoaAction plan of the World Cocoa Foundation. We need to make cocoa farming sustainable, and we will.”
CocoaAction involves working with governments and national institutions to help cocoa farmers in training and supplies of planting materials and fertiliser.
The report outlines the achievements of its Cocoa Centre of Excellence, which opened in July 2013 and has since trained almost 100,000 farmers for better practices.
The report also highlights its five major developments, including the Cocoa Horizons Truck, which journeys around Côte d’Ivoire to train farmers. It also said that, in February this year, the company acquired the Biolands group, which works with 63,000 farmers across Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone to help them produce certified cocoa.
In June, the group organised the second Chocovision conference, where 200 senior leaders and stakeholders in the cocoa chain explored and initiated new approaches and solutions for a sustainable chocolate future.
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