Mars Chocolate, World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the University of Reading recently concluded a rewarding research review trip to the Cocoa Research Unit of University of the West Indies in Trinidad.
Trinidad, once the third largest cocoa producing country in the world, is now a smaller cocoa producer. The island is home to the International Cocoa Genebank (ICG,T), a living collection of almost 3,000
Last week while at the World Cocoa Conference in Abidjan, we were pleased to hear that Mondelez International will be committing US $400 million to cocoa sustainability over the next 10 years, of which US $100 million will be invested in Côte d’Ivoire.
After hearing Tim Cofer’s remarks at the conference as well, we welcome this move, as it will take everyone in the
Mars Chocolate and Le Conseil du Café et Cacao recently signed a Letter of Agreement (LOI) in Cote d’Ivoire that will directly benefit many communities that depend on cocoa for their livelihoods, through co-investment from Mars and Conseil Café Cacao in education, health, water, and protective environments for children, and through the development of a partnership platform approach that will, we hope, be attractive
Mars Chocolate and The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Indonesia to enhance the quality and reach of its cocoa sustainability initiative.
Mars has served as one of the founding members of the Cocoa Sustainability partnership, which was established in 2005. With collaboration from key industry leaders such as Swisscontact, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, University Hassanudin and others, Mars
Congratulations to The Hershey Company, which announced this week it too will source 100 percent certified cocoa for its global chocolate product lines by 2020. It is gratifying to see more and more stakeholders recognizing the importance of certification to creating a sustainable future for chocolate. The more commitments from companies like Mars Chocolate and Hershey, among others to adopt certification protocols, the
On Sunday, February 26th, I participated in a panel on sustainable sourcing at Harvard Business School’s (HBS) Social Enterprise 2012 conference. Moderated by HBS professor Christopher Marquis, other participants in the discussion included Justin Bakule of Foundation Strategy Group, Pacita Juan of EchoStore, and Chuck Rubin of CommonSoles.
This was a chance to talk about both the business
Every now and then in cocoa sustainability work it’s very useful to take stock of where we are on a particular topic, share ideas and put experts together. At the end of last year we did this for the areas of cocoa soils and use of fertilizer in cocoa production. We started work on our Vision For Change program in Ivory Coast and have
When the London M&MS® World store hosted a champion Ghanaian cocoa farmer, both ends of the supply chain met for a successful connection.
Samuel Awuni stood in the middle of London’s M&M’S® World store—nearly 4,200 miles from the fields of his Ghana cocoa farm—in complete awe. Surrounded by shoppers reveling in five stories of brightly colored candies and merchandise, Samuel had
