Cocoa Life, the flagship sustainable sourcing programme of Mondelez International, has recorded impressive growth to transform livelihoods.
A report showed that Cocoa Life was addressing deforestation and building resilience to climate change across six cocoa origin countries, namely Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, India and Brazil, while increasing its sourcing of sustainable cocoa to 35 percent, up 14 percentage points from 2016.
“The company grew sustainably to source cocoa by 14pp to 35% of its global needs, reaching 120,500 farmers, and more than one million shade trees distributed in global effort on climate change,” excepts of the third annual progress report stated.
About 88,134 farmers were trained with nearly 5.8 million cocoa seedlings distributed to increase productivity and promote growth of higher quality cocoa.
The programme also provided nearly 52,000 community members, mostly women, with access to finance and improved their financial literacy through 1,828 operational Village Savings and Loan Associations, and established child Protection Committees in 516 communities to address child labour.
Ohena Boafo, a cocoa farmer and Union President of West Akyem Co-operative Cocoa Farmers & Marketing Union Ltd in the Eastern Region of Ghana said, “Cocoa Life has truly changed our farms by giving us training so that we can protect the environment and have sustainable cocoa production.”
He said before Cocoa Life, the farmers’ union had old and diseased trees that were not able to bear enough fruit.
“I harvested about 20 bags for the whole year. Since joining this programme, I have replanted my farm and now produce more than 100 bags a year. With this additional income, I can take good care of my wife and my children,” he said.
Christine Montenegro McGrath, Chief Well-being, Sustainability, Public & Government Affairs Officer, Mondelez, added that the accomplishments would go a long way to secure the future of cocoa for consumers.
“I’m proud to see the progress we have made on the ground, working directly in cocoa communities as we source more of our cocoa sustainably through Cocoa Life, we are helping cocoa communities thrive,” she said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri