Lindt hits 100% cocoa milestone amid Big Confectionery sustainability drive

Lindt & Sprüngli sustainable cocoa sourcing overview

• Lindt & Sprüngli Group achieves 100% Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa across products
• Certification ensures farms meet standards on labour, environment, and pest management
• Company invests in agroforestry, forest protection development, and living income pilots
• Rainforest Alliance seal rolls out but limited by packaging space constraints
• Industry shifts towards sustainable cocoa despite exploration of alternatives and innovation

The Lindt & Sprüngli Group has reached a significant milestone – 100% of its cocoa is now Rainforest Alliance Certified.

This means cocoa for every single one of its products is now sourced from farms that meet strict sustainability standards on working conditions, conservation of ecosystems, and pest management.

Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program

The Swiss chocolate maker is stepping up efforts to tackle some of the most persistent structural challenges in cocoa production, particularly deforestation, low farmer incomes, and environmental degradation, with a central focus on agroforestry, where cocoa is grown alongside other trees and crops.

It’s investing in forest protection and restoration, working to prevent further land clearing for cocoa cultivation, and rehabilitating degraded areas. This aligns with wider industry and government efforts to eliminate deforestation from supply chains.

Meanwhile, community development initiatives – supporting education, infrastructure and gender inclusion programmes in cocoa-growing regions – are also being expanded.

And its Living Income Pilot Program directly addresses the income gap faced by cocoa farmers. By testing targeted financial support mechanisms and pricing approaches, it ensures farmers can earn a sustainable livelihood, helping secure the future of cocoa production while reducing poverty in sourcing communities.

Confectionery’s sustainability shift

There’s been a noticeable shift towards sustainable production in Big Confectionery.

In the past year alone, Mars has announced plans to achieve net zero cocoa by 2050, Barry Callebaut, Ferrero, Hershey & Tony’s Chocolonely have joined a Cocoa Coalition to promote responsibly-sourced cocoa supply chains, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Hershey, and Lindt have teamed up to create the TogetherCocoa initiative to support cocoa growing communities, and Nestlé has begun exploring cutting-edge genomics to safeguard cocoa supplies.

All this shows that while Big Confectionery is investing heavily in cocoa alternatives, it still sees cocoa as fundamental to operations, and has made futureproofing it a core business strategy.