What does our Vision for Change program in Côte d’Ivoire look like on the ground? How will it help farmers in Soubré? What do the farmers themselves think of the effort to train them in methods like grafting and pruning? You can find the answer to these questions in our new video on Vision for Change.
In the video, you will see the kinds
2012 was a banner year for the Sustainable Cocoa Initiative, and in particular for our Vision for Change projects in the Soubré region of Cote d’Ivoire. We saw marked improvement in the four key areas of productivity, community development, monitoring and evaluation, and coalition building. We thought we’d share with you just some of the important achievements we saw last year.
In the area
Last week, we had the pleasure of attending the World Cocoa Conference in Abidjan, where Barry Parkin, our Global Procurement and Sustainability Head, gave a keynote address to the main session.
While at the conference, we also had the opportunity to meet with several of our industry peers, and at the end of the week, we signed the “Abidjan Declaration” to confirm our support
Traveling to cocoa growing communities around the world has long been an important part of my job, and though it involves a lot of time in airplanes throughout the year, there’s just no substitute for seeing our projects in person and meeting the people involved.
On Sunday, November 18, I met with the chief and other leaders of Petit Bondoukou, one of the first
Here at Mars, we are encouraged to see the new changes to the Fairtrade Standard for Cocoa for Small Producer Organizations. At its core, our partnership with Fairtrade International shares the principle of putting farmers first. With regard to cocoa, yield and quality improvement offer significant income-generating opportunities for farmers, while at the same time protecting their livelihoods in the long term.
For too
Take a few minutes to read this month’s issue of NCA Journal for a piece regarding our Sustainable Cocoa Initiative. The magazine interviewed Andrew Harner for a comprehensive article on the work we are doing in cocoa sustainability, with a special focus on the Vision for Change program in Côte d’Ivoire. It was gratifying to discuss with them the importance of the Cocoa Development
The effort to ensure that cocoa farmers can be more productive through training – to make sure they can learn about sophisticated farming practices and then utilize them on their own farms – is essential to Mars Chocolate’s sustainability efforts. “Technology transfer” is a simple concept, but in practice, takes a lot of creative thinking and leadership from those in the industry who have
It is a thick, hot winter in Côte d’Ivoire, and the gritty Harmattan winds have settled a Saharan haze over Abidjan. The exceptionally dry weather has started to harm the cocoa trees, and many are already predicting a smaller harvest later this year.
We have come from a week in Soubré, 5 hours drive or so (depending on the number of potholes you hit)
Having just returned from a trip to Cote d’Ivoire to check in on our sustainability efforts there, I’m struck by the difference from my last visit. I was last in Cote d’Ivoire in 2010 when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding (click MoU to read the memorandum and here to watch the ceremony), just before a period of great political uncertainty. Cote d’Ivoire is
In June I had a wonderful opportunity to see the Success Alliance program in action on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The program is run by ACDI/VOCA with the support of USAID and the World Cocoa Foundation, of which Mars is a member. Broadly, Success Alliance works to enable farmers to create successful businesses around cocoa production, and this can include
