Satelligence and Blommer partner to fight deforestation in cocoa areas

The Blommer Chocolate Company is owned by Fuji Oil Group and the new partnership is an important milestone in group’s sustainability strategy.

Starting with a focus on Blommer's cocoa farming network, it will strengthen the Group's efforts to eradicate deforestation risk from its cocoa supply chain, as Satelligence’s analysis will allow Blommer to capture carbon and gain insights that will inform the entire Fuji Group's roadmap to deliver on its science-based scope 3 emissions reduction targets.

Scope and Strategy

The scalability of Satelligence’s platform is a significant draw for Blommer, which, as North America’s largest cocoa processor and ingredient chocolate supplier, needs a solution with reach. Satelligence’s initial assessment covers around 50,000km² across Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Ecuador.

To provide Blommer with the analysis it needs to achieve its targets, Satelligence uses its E&Y certified methodology which combines satellite imagery, AI-driven algorithms and ancillary data on cocoa farm locations.

The picture that emerges will bolster Blommer’s sustainability strategy with landscape and farm-level insights that include the following:

•           Canopy cover change

•           Carbon loss/gain on and around cocoa farms

•           Risk triaging for deforestation on high/low risk farms

•           Identifying areas of shade cocoa

•           Monitoring for carbon sequestration

Satelligence’s methodology allows it to distinguish between deforestation and regrowth clearing. A spokesperson for the company said a real-time risk alerting system was implemented that enhanced Blommer’s capacity to swiftly address the drivers of deforestation and degradation.

“For Blommer, this makes compliance with international regulations that make this distinction easier. It also protects them from the reputational damage associated with deforestation in their supply chains​.”

Satelligence prepared a report on land cover change in the area analysed between 2001 and 2021, as well as a Forest Loss Risk Index (FLRI) that rated their concessions on the farm level between 0 and 1, with 1 being almost certain and 0 being the least likely to cause forest loss.

Its conclusion is that “no clear trends are visible from year to year for deforestation​” in Blommer’s cocoa supply chains tells us that deforestation has remained consistently low in their supply chains.