Partnerships will be crucial in tackling the supply chain challenges in the surging cocoa and chocolate industry – this was the key message at Barry Callebaut’s Chocovision conference.
Confectionery giant Mars has made ‘significant’ progress in fulfilling its pledge to purchase its cocoa supply from certified sustainable sources after it announced plans to purchase nearly 90,000 tons of sustainable cocoa in 2012.
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), has entered a public-private partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to target 5,000 children in child-labour or at high risk of falling into child labour on cocoa farms in West Africa.
A division of the World Bank has acquired a stake in cocoa trader Armajaro Trading to support sustainable farming practices and improve traceability within its supply chains.
Finnish company Fazer has set a target to certify its entire cocoa supply by 2017 to ensure its cocoa comes from traceable sources and is free from the worst forms of child labour.
In light of current economic difficulties organic consumers are looking elsewhere for foods, and sustainable products resonate with their core values, according to the MD of Cert ID.
The EU resolution on child labour in the cocoa sector passed last week fails to implement legally binding measures on a confectionery industry that has been “dragging its feet”, according to the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF).
Barry Callebaut is investing €33.2 (CHF 40m) over the next 10 years in a cocoa sustainability initiative it hopes will boost farm productivity, increase quality and improve farmer livelihoods.
The European Parliament today gave its consent to the 2010 International Cocoa Agreement and passed a resolution on child labour in the cocoa sector in a move that will benefit manufacturers, according to industry bodies.
Nestlé has leapt to the defence of its Nesquik milk-based drinks brand, after the Children’s Food Campaign (CFC) lodged a ‘super complaint’ with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), complaining that well-known beverage and food brands were targeting...
The chocolate and cocoa industry has backed an EU resolution to tackle child labour in cocoa production and warns children may still have produced cocoa that is 100% certified.
A committee of MEPs is calling on the European Commission (EC) to consider legislating against use of child labour in cocoa plantations that fuel the EU's demand for chocolate, while the world's largest food firm Nestle has outlined its measures...
Packaging firm Robatech has launched a line of hotmelt applicators designed for confectionery packaging that it has said can enhance efficiency by using less energy.
Nestle has become the first food company to allow the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate whether children are working on cocoa farms supplying its factories as the company said that it would almost certainly be the case.
Greater ownership and management of the stevia supply chain has helped to build a system that is sustainable, responsible, and scalable, say leading global suppliers PureCircle and Cargill.
As part of our special edition newsletter examining supply chain sustainability, FoodProductionDaily.com spoke to Jan Dalsgaard Johannesen, corporate environmental director at Arla Foods, about specific challenges facing the dairy sector.
Mars chocolate bars in the Netherlands are to carry UTZ certified marks from Feburary 2012 as Mars sets targets for its cocoa to be fully sustainable worldwide by 2020.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) has withdrawn from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which currently offers the only international audit scheme for producers of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
A call from the Netherlands to end European import duty on sustainably produced palm oil has been welcomed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The proposal is designed to encourage the uptake of sustainable palm oil by offsetting some of...
The first one million hectares of certified land for sustainable palm production marks ‘a turning point’ for industry, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Cargill’s drive to secure a good quality and sustainable supply of cocoa beans is filtering down to famers in Cote d'Ivoire as it has just made premium payments totalling more than US $2.2m.
Indonesia is the focus of an extension of Nestlé’s sustainable Cocoa Plan initiative, with the Swiss food group aiming to pump $4m (€2.7m) into bean production in that country.
Cargill’s Cocoa and Chocolate division is rolling out its Ivory Coast UTZ certification farmer training programme in Cameroon - a move the processor anticipates will dramatically boost sustainable cocoa output in the fourth largest producer country.
Cargill has upped the ante in the sustainable palm oil stakes with a commitment that all palm oil products (excluding palm kernel oil products) it supplies to Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable...
Cargill has received the first ever shipment of UTZ cocoa in North America, a move which will be followed by other sustainable cocoa developments in the region, said the certifying body, as momentum gathers in the US market.
Special Edition: Alternatives to carbon heavy processes
In recent years there has been an ongoing war of words between industry players from different packaging formats over which has the lightest carbon footprint.
Cocoa farming has been a contributor to deforestation and degradation in West Africa due to limited fertilizer use as well as outdated crop husbandry methods, claim two research groups in a newly published study in Environmental Management.
Comments made by the Nestlé chair that child labour is “almost impossible” to stop, contradicts the company’s commitments to ending child exploitation in Africa, said the IUF, a global trade union representing food workers.
Specific sustainability jobs may be rare in the food industry but gaining environmental expertise can give professionals an edge in an increasingly competitive job market.
Industrial chocolate supplier, Blommer Chocolate, said it is set to receive a record-breaking shipment of cocoa beans containing a large percentage of sustainably farmed and Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa, despite political turmoil in the region.
Market uptake of sustainable palm oil will need to accelerate in 2011 in order to keep up with rapidly growing production, claims the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Political leadership is crucial to encouraging more sustainable food consumption, attendees at a Kellogg’s Breakfast Club meeting heard this month, with industry and civil society playing important roles too.
Participation in ADM’s cocoa growing certification programme - Serap - has tripled since its implementation and it has provided almost 49,000 metric tonnes of sustainable cocoa in the period, said the cocoa processor as it conducts a review of the programme...
Cargill said its planned investment of $5m over the next three years in sustainable cocoa initiatives will help address the worst forms of child labour in cocoa growing communities in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Producers must ensure packaging is more sustainable as customers remain convinced that food packing is excessive and are altering their consumption patterns as a result, warns research from Datamonitor.
Sustainable packaging is a buzzword on the lips of consumers and industry players alike. But what is sustainable packaging and how far has the sector come in developing a road map towards this most elusive of goals?
Cocoa bean crop quality and yield is benefiting from a farmer training programme in the Ivory Coast, which is set to be extended to a wider number of farmer cooperatives this month, said Cargill.
The globe’s two biggest food firms, Nestlé and Kraft, have launched internal investigations after a Greenpeace report claimed both purchase palm oil from Indonesian company PT Smart whose parent group Sinar Mas allegedly engages in widespread illegal...
Retention of Ghana produced cocoa on the US Department of Labor’s list of goods produced by child or forced labour could hinder efforts to eliminate the practice, claims a senior politician of the major cocoa supplying country.
Kraft Foods said its premium dark chocolate range is the first to carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, showing it contains cocoa from farms that meet the sustainability standard.
Quality and supply problems stand in the way of buying palm oil entirely from certified sustainable sources, according to Nutella manufacturer Ferrero.
New research from the American Dietetic Association has found a "paradoxical correlation" between obesity and food insecurity – defined as lack of access to food, or nutritionally adequate food – in young American children.
Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate is aiming to have 10,000 tonnes of UTZ-certified cocoa available for the market in 2010, as the first two Ivory Coast cooperatives achieve certification and others are expected to get there soon.
