"Mars is dedicated to making its cocoa supply chain sustainable. The Tropical Commodity Coalition witnesses and welcomes the strong commitment by Mars to source 100-percent certified cacao by 2020. The Tropical Commodity Coalition challenges Mars, in this difficult but very important quest, to collaborate with other major industry players, farmer organizations and civil society organizations for overall sustainability in the cocoa and chocolate sector."
Gijs Verbraak,
Tropical Commodity Coalition
“We are delighted to be working with Mars to alleviate some of the critical social, environmental and economic issues facing the cocoa industry. Their noteworthy commitment to sustainability is helping to conserve natural resources and maintain livelihoods for cocoa farmers for generations to come.”
Tensie Whelan,
President,
Rainforest Alliance
“Mars is a founding and active member of the UTZ CERTIFIED cocoa program. With its bold move of committing to 100-percent certified cocoa by 2020, it has set a positive example for the sector and beyond. UTZ and Mars share a focus on making farmers more successful, and we're proud to be working with such a forward-looking company.”
Daan de Vries,
Cocoa Program Manager,
UTZ CERTIFIED.
'Our target is to source 100 percent certified cocoa by 2020'
People love chocolate, but few know that most of the world’s cocoa is grown by more than five million smallholders in parts of West Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
For many years, these farmers have struggled with aging cocoa trees, pests and disease, depleted soils and unpredictable rainfall. The resulting low productivity and incomes mean farmers often lack education, information and financing to improve skills and output, keeping them and their families in poverty and limiting access to basic services like health care.
As one of the world’s largest cocoa users, we are committed to helping to build a vibrant, sustainable cocoa industry from the farmer to the factory. Our business depends on a long-term supply of quality cocoa, and we believe this begins by increasing farmers’ yields, incomes and quality of life.
Cocoa is a labor-intensive crop grown primarily in developing countries, and there has been sustained criticism of the labor practices used on cocoa farms. We have always been and continue to be deeply concerned about the use of child labor in cocoa farming. We do not accept the worst forms of child labor or trafficking in any form and are working closely with others in the industry to address these issues. We work with the International Cocoa Initiative on programs to educate cocoa communities about child labor and educate children in cocoa communities.
We have developed a four-part approach to improving cocoa farming. We are investing in science to improve cocoa varieties, increase yields, improve resistance to pests and disease and increase water and nutrient-use efficiency. We are working with cocoa growers and national agricultural research institutes to build producer capabilities and apply the results of our research to rejuvenate aging farms. We have committed to sourcing only certified cocoa by 2020 and partner with certification programs that boost productivity and growers’ incomes. Through collaboration with governments and others, we expect to amplify the positive impacts of our initiatives.
Innovation in Agricultural Science
The research we conduct and support will ultimately help increase growers’ productivity and incomes. We are breeding and distributing higher-yielding, more disease-resistant plants anddeveloping better methods of pest and disease control. This work is led by the Mars Center for Cocoa Science in Bahia, Brazil, which opened in 1982.
Today, the Center is a hub for world-class science and collaboration and leads our work on cocoa breeding, agroforestry systems and biodiversity-rich environments and land rehabilitation. The results will enable social change, economic stability and environmental stewardship for the benefit of cocoa farmers throughout the world. To help boost the social and economic well-being of the local cocoa growing community, the Center also runs a school for farmers and children from the surrounding district of Barro Preto.
Meanwhile, our collaboration with IBM and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Center has resulted in Mars releasing the sequence of the cocoa genome so scientists worldwide can use it to develop more resilient cocoa crops. See the case study for more details.
In 2010, Mars, IBM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) completed a two-year effort to sequence and annotate the cocoa genome.
Case Study
Unraveling the Cocoa Genome
Click here to read the full case study
Working with Growers to Improve Capabilities
We work with cocoa farmers to help them implement more sustainable practices. The sheer number of farmers and lack of infrastructure in some countries make this difficult, but we are making progress.
In 2009, we worked with international donor agencies, governments and others to establish Cocoa Development Centers (CDCs) in cocoa-growing regions in Asia. These centers provide farmers with the tools, techniques and training to cultivate high-quality yields. Farmers can also use planting materials from CDCs to establish Village Cocoa Clinics — local nurseries that facilitate the commercial distribution of cocoa plants, providing an additional source of income.
Based on our success in Asia, we are expanding the program to Côte d’Ivoire through our Vision for Change initiative. Our goal is to set up 25 CDCs that will reach 50,000 farmers across the country, beginning in Soubré, the country’s main cocoa-growing region. A first step is our work with the National Agricultural Research Center (CNRA) in Côte d’Ivoire to select the best-available trees and graft them onto older, less-productive trees. We will then work with industry partners to create an additional 50 CDCs to reach 100,000 more farmers.
Mars Takes Top Citizenship Prize for Cocoa-Sourcing Programs
In 2010, our efforts to improve economic development in Ghana’s cocoa-growing region were one of three projects chosen from 77 nominations to receive the U.S. Secretary of State’s 2010 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE). The ACE awards are nominated by U.S. ambassadors around the world and honor American businesses that demonstrate good corporate citizenship abroad.
“Through its development and training programs… Mars is helping to create jobs for…farmers, for drivers in the transportation industry and for workers at the ports,”said Donald Teitelbaum, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana.“Every one of these jobs helps a Ghanaian farmer, driver or shipper to pay school fees for his or her children, pay the cost of health care and provide other essential services.”
Certification — Standards That Make a Difference
Certification verifies that the cocoa we use is produced in a way that is good for farmers, the environment and the industry. Our certification criteria aim to go beyond existing international standards by introducing productivity measures that will ensure certification directly increases growers’ incomes.
In 2009, we became the first global chocolate company to commit to sourcing only certified cocoa by 2020. We intend to buy a minimum of 100,000 tonnes of certified cocoa annually from both Rainforest Alliance and UTZ CERTIFIED, and we are seeking additional certification programs to work with, to ensure we accomplish our 2020 target. We are on track — in 2010 we bought 16,000 tonnes of certified cocoa — five percent of our total volume purchased.
In January 2010, GALAXY® milk chocolate bars in the U.K. and Ireland became our first chocolate products to carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal. Read 2011 news on this site.
What We Look for in Cocoa-Certification Partners
We require any certification program through which we source cocoa to work toward:
- Improving livelihoods and increasing farmers' incomes through crop intensification and soil management, diversification and price equity
- Providing affordable, high-quality certified cocoa from diversified origins at competitive premiums
- Ensuring appropriate quality attributes of cocoa and meeting or exceeding all current food-safety requirements
- Building towards a fully transparent pipeline, including price and quality signals
- Growing into a mainstream scalable program, supported by national and international institutions and allowing for standardization of codes, training and auditing
- Seeking credibility through membership of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL), independent monitoring and evaluation and third-party endorsement
- Including stewardship of the environment and biodiversity through shade management, crop diversification and protection of biodiversity and forest reserves
- Meeting the International Labour Organization’s eight core labor standards describing relevant human rights and labor conditions, including child labor
- Leading to community empowerment and participation by investing increased income to build socially and environmentally sound communities
Collaboration for a More Sustainable Cocoa Industry
The challenge of creating a thriving cocoa industry is too great for us to tackle alone. We work in partnership with governments, nongovernmental organizations, industry, farmers’ groups and the scientific community to amplify the impact of our collective efforts. In 2009 Mars signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Côte d’Ivoire as the cornerstone of our commitment to collaboration and investment. We are also working with the World Agroforestry Centre, the World Cocoa Foundation, the International Cocoa Initiative and others. For more information on Mars’ partnerships for sustainable cocoa, please visit our Cocoa Sustainability Website
MY COCOA PAPER™ is a line of quality handmade paper products made in cocoa communities using 70-percent natural cocoa bark and 30-percent recycled office paper waste.
