Ferrero has unveiled its latest Cocoa Charter Progress report, detailing its ongoing drive towards sustainable sourcing, with key achievements including reaching 198,000 farmers within its programmes, and delivering 100% independently certified status for its supplies, writes Neill Barston.

As the company detailed in its study, it has placed a high degree of focus on respecting children’s rights and addressing child labour issues, as well as core environmental concerns regarding degradation of forests – which it is aims to positively influence through supporting agroforestry farming techniques.

The business is set to play its part in our 2023 World Confectionery Conference on 5 October in Harrogate, UK, with Francesco Tramontin, the company’s head of European institutional affairs, set to speak once again, addressing major issues of how the industry is grappling with complex changes, which including upcoming due diligence legislation providing stronger human rights protections for those working in agricultural communities. (See our exclusive video interview here with Francesco reflecting on last year’s event, and anticipating our plans for this year). You can still register for the event here: www.confectioneryconference.com

pic: Francesco Tramontin at this year’s World Confectionery Conference. Pic: Cedric Puisney

According to its latest results, last year the company reached a total of 64,000 gaining one-to-one coaching to improving their practices as well as wider business planning, with the company also distributing a total of 1.7 million cocoa seedlings. It enabled a total of 143,000 hectares of land brought into sustainable agricultural practices.

Significantly, the report also revealed a continued high level of traceability from farm to purchase point. Ferrero polygon mapped more than 182,000 farmers, and also covered 470,000 hectares of agricultural land with deforestation risk assessments to ensure no cocoa was sourced from protected areas.

Marco Gonçalves, Chief Procurement and Hazelnut Company Officer at Ferrero said: “It’s our ambition to be a true force for good in the cocoa sector, ensuring that production creates value for all. We’re very proud of the results we have delivered to date, and we will continue to champion best practice in responsible sourcing.”Alongside the Progress Report,

Furthermore, the company has also disclosed its annual list of cocoa farmer groups and suppliers in a bid to honour its transparency commitments across its supply chains. This includes the company working with farms across Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ecuador and Colombia.

As the company added, it aims to source all cocoa from dedicated farmer groups through supply chains which are fully traceable to farm level. In the 21/22 crop season, Ferrero sourced about 70% of its cocoa as cocoa beans that the company processes in its own plants and uses in its products like Nutella. Ferrero bought these beans as physically traceable, also known as ‘segregated’, which means that the company can trace these beans from farm to its factories.Ferrero continues to maintain long-term relationships with farmer groups through its direct suppliers.

About 85% of Ferrero total cocoa volume is already sourced from the dedicated farmer groups it supports through the Cocoa Charter. Of these groups 80% have been in Ferrero’s supply chain for three years or more, and 15% for six years or more.The company continues to scale its cocoa sustainability efforts as part of the Cocoa Charter with the aim of improving the livelihoods of farmers and communities, protecting children’s rights and safeguarding the environment.

In a statement on its strategy for sourcing, the company added: “At Ferrero, we take a continuous improvement approach to sustainable sourcing. This is built around supplier management and robust due diligence, traceability and transparency certification and standards. We know more can be achieved together, and long-term partnerships and collaborations are essential. We invest in our supply chains through targeted programmes to improve to their environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions and their overall standards.

Through the activities of our sustainability programme, Ferrero Farming Values (FFV), we work to make a difference to the supply chains in which we operate. We aim to be a driving force in a cocoa sector where production creates value for all, where livelihoods of smallholders and farming communities are improved, children’s rights are respected, and the environment is actively protected and enhanced through sustainable agricultural practices.”

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