Puratos spearheads sustainable cocoa movement with farmer support initiatives

16 Apr 2024 --- Puratos and its Belgian chocolate brand Belcolade have unveiled their latest annual report of the Cacao-Trace sustainable cocoa program that demonstrates it is “on track” to achieve its ambition of reaching up to 50,000 farmers and helping them achieve a living income by 2030.

The program includes a “Chocolate Bonus” corresponding to a 0.10€ (US$ 0.11) reward for every kg of high-quality chocolate sold to Cacao-Trace customers, benefiting the program’s “high-standard” cocoa bean growers.

“The Chocolate Bonus is one of the cornerstones of our Cacao-Trace program, so being able to increase the amount collected every year has had an enormous impact on the communities where we operate,” says Youri Dumont, director of the chocolate business unit at Puratos.

“We’re dedicated to ensuring a long-term positive effect; a proportion of the Chocolate Bonus is allocated to the maintenance of projects to help future generations benefit from investments in education and health infrastructures as well.”

Farmer support
The Cacao-Trace program made its most significant contribution to cocoa-growing communities, reaching over 23,000 farmers and their families across eight countries last year, notes the company.

The project aims to develop a more sustainable cocoa industry for everyone involved while ensuring its chocolate and cocoa-based products deliver on taste through a “superior fermentation process.” 

Additionally, the program collected a €2.4 million (US$2.5 million) Chocolate Bonus last year, which will be shared as cash donations or via community projects with farmers this year.

Puratos' Cacao Trace program collected €2.4 million Chocolate Bonus last year.Over the last one year, the Cacao-Trace program provided 46 essential pieces of water equipment and bolstered construction and renovation of twelve primary school projects across these regions in a bid to support local cocoa farming communities through improved income, better education and healthcare facilities.

The farmer upliftment efforts also include a Cacao-Trace Quality Premium, which rewards cocoa farmers for their high-quality beans, regardless of how much chocolate is sold. 

Last year, the initiative accounted for nearly €1.5 million (US$ 1.6 million) and has expanded to community projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa.

Balancing nature and cocoa
As global warming batters key crops like cocoa and coffee as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change several years ago, the World Cocoa Foundation has stepped up to design a new methodology that can measure cocoa household income and living incomes more precisely to evaluate the living income status of cocoa farmers. 

The cocoa industry is also facing scrutiny for its environmental footprint and has thus taken to “transformative changes,” including technology-driven initiatives to track carbon fluctuations and agroforestry.

To address such concerns, Puratos’ report details its progress toward improving agroforestry in key cocoa-growing regions. The company planted 199,302 trees last year, taking the total to 626,322 toward the program’s target of 3.44 million trees by 2030. 

As global warming and El Niño dry spells wreak havoc on cocoa plantations, manufacturers are forced to raise product prices.“Replanting trees is a key element of the program’s strategy, to help safeguard cocoa cultivation and restore biodiversity,” underscores the Belgium-based company. 

Cocoa price ripple effect
As El Niño dry spells in West Africa thrashed cocoa crops earlier this year, farmers in the region have now turned to planting more cocoa trees, eyeing financial gains, as reported by Bloomberg.

Reforestation is also on the minds of FMCG giants like Nestlé, which recently partnered with Cargill and Beyond Beans to launch sustainable cocoa projects and advocate the transition toward regenerative agriculture through plantation in areas surrounding cocoa farming communities impacted by degradation.

Consumers are caught in the midst of the record-high cocoa prices, too, as chocolate makers increase product prices and reduce product size, fueling the so-called “shrinkflation” trend. 

However, a Nestlé spokesperson told Food Ingredients First last month that despite cocoa prices increasing by approximately 60% last year, the company only passed on “a fraction of the price increase to consumers.”

By Insha Naureen