Free webinar: Is there a crisis in cocoa supply chains?

Our latest webinar on follows the highly successful and informative webinar on the EUDR legislation broadcast in January. Invited speakers will provide an update on the EUDR and discuss the business case for a fully transparent supply chain in the face of unprecedented financial costs and current cocoa shortages.

Sustainability is hard-wired into most supply chains these days, but there is still room for improvements, especially in key commodities such as cocoa, coffee, sugar, and palm oil, along with key flavour and sweetener ingredients. With the new European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) on the horizon, we look at the implications of the new legislation and ask how can operators adapt not only to lawmakers, but to growing consumer demand for change.

At the recent World Cocoa Conference in Brussels, five national multi-stakeholder platforms (ISCOs) in Europe convened for a meeting and published a statement on sustainable procurement practices.

‘Smart-mix’ living income strategies

In the statement, the ISCOs reaffirm their commitment to close Living Income gaps in the cocoa supply chain and stress the importance of ‘smart-mix’ living income strategies.

The ISCOs commit to making cocoa procurement practices a key element of their living income agenda and working together on a set of unified principles to provide to our members.

This “smart mix” should always include strong service delivery programmes, the creation of an enabling environment, and sustainable procurement practices, the statement read.

“These practices must not be regarded isolated, but in the context of market mechanisms like commodity exchange, nationally regulated markets, competition, and standards and premium systems.”

The joint communique from the ISCOs also stated that “combined with other initiatives and strategies aimed at improving farm income levels, the joint promotion of sustainable procurement practices can have the necessary impact on reducing the living income gaps in the cocoa sector.”

The five ISCOs:

1. IDH/ Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO)
2. The German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO)
3. Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO)
4. Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO)
5. The French Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (FRISCO)