Barry Callebaut has slashed its overall footprint by 8.1 percent in the last year, from 8.5 million to 7.8 million metric tons of CO2e. The chocolate and cocoa giant also outlines other significant ambitions for the coming years, including new targets to completely eradicate child labor by 2025 while boosting upward economic momentum for farmers.

“If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic is underlining the importance of sustainable supply chains and the relevance of our Forever Chocolate ambition,” says Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group

“We believe that challenging years like this one are the time when further scaling impact, developing new partnerships and executing innovative projects is even more critical. We simply did not pause on our sustainability ambition in COVID-19 times.”

Within its Forever Chocolate strategy, the company aims to become carbon positive by 2025, meaning that it will store more carbon than it emits.

The main drivers of this achievement are reduced carbon emissions from land use change, increased sourcing of certified ingredients and reduced carbon intensity in factories. More than a third of its 61 processing plants are now fully powered by renewable energy.

Making sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025
These achievements are highlighted in Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate Progress Report 2019/20. It is the company’s fourth report since the launch of Forever Chocolate strategy in 2016.

The supplier’s carbon intensity decreased from 3.93 to 3.73 metric tons of CO2 per metric ton of product. To contribute to ending deforestation, it continues to map cocoa farms in its direct supply chain within 25 km of a protected forest area in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon. 

This year Barry Callebaut mapped 52,558 (an increase of 11 percent from the previous year) farms in its direct supply chain located within 25 km of a protected forest area.

Among other developments, the company has:

• Mapped 181,861 farms on geographic and socio-economic data.

• Trained 94,946 cocoa farmers on child labor awareness.

• Distributed over 2 million cocoa seedlings and over 1.6 million shade trees.

• Sourced 61 percent of non-cocoa ingredients from sustainable sources.

• Implemented a 100 percent sustainable cocoa supply chain in its global gourmet brands, Callebaut, Cacao Barry and Carma.

Eradicating child labor by 2025
To help identify and address child labor in its cocoa supply chain, Barry Callebaut continued in 2019/20 to roll-out child labor monitoring and remediation systems based on the industry practice as developed by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).

To undertake monitoring and remediation, it works on the ground in cocoa origin countries, visiting households and communities to identify children at risk of child labor. 

The company’s monitoring and remediation systems now cover 113 farmer groups, including 39,909 (an increase of 139 percent) farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon. In 2019/20 it trained 94,946 (an increase of 17 percent) farmers on child labor awareness.

In the fiscal year under review, Barry Callebaut found 22,965 cases of child labor in its cocoa supply chain. This is a strong increase compared to the previous year, due to the application of a broader definition of what constitutes the worst forms of child labor in Ghana. 

For all identified cases, the company reports remediation is being prepared. Of the reported cases found in previous years, 4,971 cases are under remediation.

Over 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty by 2025
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Barry Callebaut continued its efforts to gain a better understanding of farmer needs. It has increased the number of farmers with full data to 181,861.

The company has mapped the geographical location, as well as the size of 277,566 (an increase of 14 percent) active cocoa farms, covering 72 percent of its direct supply chain in 2019/20. It also increased census interviews with cocoa farmers to 291,377 (an increase of 27 percent), capturing socio-economic and household data.

The mapping allows it to design Farm Business Plans (FBPs), which offer the farmer a journey out of poverty based on their individual situation and farm profile. 

A FBP consists of tailor-made offerings for a farmer, such as individual coaching, agricultural inputs, tools and diversification. This year over 41,178 (an increase of 153 percent) farmers have adopted FBPs.

Furthermore, the company distributed over 2million (an increase of 19 percent) cocoa seedlings and over 1.6 million (an increase of 124 percent) shade trees.

For the measurement of progress against its target to lift over 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty by 2025, it is using the International Poverty Line definition of extreme poverty of USD 1.90/day as a starting point.

In 2019/20 the company estimates 143,233 cocoa farmers (an increase of 37 percent) in its supply chain are out of poverty.