In the farmers’ eyes, a beautiful cocoa tree is the one with high yield. The lady in the picture who is happily harvesting her beautiful cocoa tree, her name is Astuty. With over 13-year experience of growing cacao, she carefully takes care of her cocoa farm of 2 hectors. But back to 3 years ago, those cocoa trees caused her sleepless nights.
3 years
As our contingency of Dutch, Ivorian, and Americans waited to see the Ashanti King, drums pounded and bright colors flashed, and delegations passed by to pay their respects to the king. We were on a mission to create a film called “For the Love of Chocolate.” But not just a love of that creamy, sweet chocolate bar that we’re all familiar with in western
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
Today, Mars Inc. released its 2nd annual Principles in Action summary, which details the company’s approach to business and Mar’s commitment to put its Five Principles into action. As part of the summary, we are highlighting our Sustainable Cocoa Initiative.
As readers of this blog know, creating a sustainable cocoa sector that can meet the chocolate industry’s long-term demand for cocoa, the
I last posted about a series of meetings in January involving representatives from the Governments of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, officials of the US Department of Labor, the congressional offices of Tom Harkin and Eliot Engel and the global cocoa industry – the group which makes up the Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group (CLCCG). These meetings sought to address the continuing concerns around the persistence
Grant Reid talked with last week with NJBiz reporter Melinda Caliendo about Mars’s vision to purchase all our cocoa from sustainable sources by 2020. Mars Global Chocolate is headquartered in NJ, and it’s great news for the cocoa industry that the New Jersey business community is taking notice of our sustainability efforts.
Melinda’s piece, which you can access here, goes into some detail
A few years ago, Mars was faced with the idea that we needed another Côte d’Ivoire to produce enough cocoa to meet the world’s growing chocolate demand by 2020. Given that cocoa was becoming a less attractive crop for farmers, and that Côte d’Ivoire was in a cycle of decline, we knew we needed a strategy for cocoa sustainability. As a company that’s always
In the 1980s, Bahia, Brazil was one of the largest cocoa producers in the world, producing over 300,000 tons per year. However, in 1989, a fungal disease, called “Witches’ Broom”, ravaged the area and in 3 years total yearly production would be down by over 30%.
This fungus devastated Bahia—leaving 200,000 people unemployed, there was social unrest and a destroyed economy. For the next
Last Thursday, I was invited to speak at Secretary Clinton’s Global Impact Economy Forum, a gathering of 250 high-level investors, business executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, academics, and policymakers, in Washington, DC. It was a great honor to have the work of the Sustainable Cocoa Initiative highlighted by the State Department and I was pleased to represent Mars Chocolate at the event.
The forum featured
