Barry Callebaut has a tradition of supporting cocoa farmers, so the company is working to ensure that their operations do not put cocoa farmers or employees at risk and do not play a part in the inadvertent spread of the virus.
With the company’s long-standing tradition of supporting cocoa farmers production in cocoa origin producing countries, they continue to purchase, deliver cocoa, process cocoa, and ensure, as much as possible, the economic viability of the cocoa supply chain. They must support the livelihoods and income of cocoa farmers while protecting their family’s health and their health.
Together with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, local regulations, and government directives on COVID-19, the company has paused all activities that require:
1.Close interactions with farmers’ families, households or communities
2. Large gatherings of farmers or farmer communities
3. The unnecessary movement of Barry Callebaut’s Sourcing and Sustainability employees from cities to farms or villages
4. Third-party labor
To support cocoa farmers and their communities, they have identified actions that will be implemented at the date of this publication through locally-based coaches who live in farming communities. These coaches have been trained and will continue to be updated with the latest guidelines, on COVID-19, via phone. And will also support farmers while respecting governmental and Barry Callebaut guidelines (e.g., only one-to-one interaction while practicing social distancing, hand washing, no handshaking), on the following activities:
- Farm Business Plans, certification, mapping, coaching visits, and Productivity Package deliveries.
Finally, while individuals across the globe are severely impacted by the health and economic ramifications from the Corona pandemic, Barry Callebaut recognizes the additional need to support and protect at-risk communities in our supply chain, who are already struggling in these areas. To do so, the company have committed to:
- To distribute official WHO posters with COVID-19 protective instructions to farmer groups, via local coaches.
- To sensitize farmers on the risk of COVID-19, and provide each family with soap, via local coaches while interacting for official purposes.
- To support governmental dissemination of evolving and the essential information to remote communities, via our coaching networks.
