Nov 29,2016 - Callebaut Updates Sustainability Plan With ‘Forever Chocolate’ Initiative
Zurich, Switzerland — Barry Callebaut AG is pledging to source 100 percent of its ingredients from sustainable sources by 2025 as part of its Forever Chocolate program, according to the company.
“We have been pioneering sustainability in cocoa and chocolate for many years, and we have made great progress,” says CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique. “But despite all of our efforts, only 23 percent of cocoa beans we source are from sustainability programs.”
The program is centered on four key targets: eradicating child labor from the supply chain, lifting more than 500,000 farmers out of poverty, becoming carbon and forest positive and have 100 percent sustainable ingredients in all of its products.
“The targets we have set ourselves after a thorough materiality analysis are bold, and we recognize that we do not have all the answers,” de Saint-Affrique says. “What we know for sure is that we cannot reach these targets by ourselves. That is why we intend to start a movement that also includes governments, NGOs, consumers and our customers. Sustainable chocolate is as much about governments creating an enabling policy environment and enforcing legislation, NGOs creating awareness and consumers making sustainable choices, as it is about industry commitment and investment.”
