The focus of its Cocoa Horizons scheme will be on large producer countries such as Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameron Brazil and Indonesia. The company said it would expand the initiative to other regions in the coming years.
Barry Callebaut CEO Juergen B. Steinemann said: “The scarcity of quality cocoa is a serious concern that touches the heart of our business – because without more cocoa, we can’t produce more chocolate.”
“We’ve therefore made sustainable cocoa a pillar of our company’s ambitious growth strategy, and accelerated our long-time efforts to ensure sustainable cocoa production."
How the money will be spent
Barry Callebaut will invest €4.2m (CHF 5m) on farmer training, infrastructure, community education and health programmes in fiscal 2011/12.
The company said the programme will focus on three pillars: farmer practices, farmer education and farmer livelihood.
To improve farmer practices, Barry Callebaut will open a Centre of Cocoa Excellence and five Farmer Academies in Ivory Coast.
It will fund community-centred education to promote cocoa farming and business for women and young people.
The company added that it would “execute integrated actions to improve access to basic health care and potable water”.
The scheme follows Callebaut’s previous initiative, the Quality Partner Programme.
Restated results
Barry Callebaut also restated its 2010/11 results for the first six months to reflect the sale of its European Consumer products business Stollwerck in July last year.
Sales for the period were restated as €1.98bn (CHF 2.4bn), while operating profit was €166m (CHF 200m).