Mondelēz International opens its state-of-the-art cocoa crop science technical centre in Pasuruan, Indonesia.
The site is the fourth technical centre in the AMEA region, and is the home to Mondelēz’s global cocoa crop science team.
It enables Mondelēz International to develop and promote better cocoa farming practices, and continue ongoing work with farming communities, suppliers and partners around the world.
The centre shows a step in their mission to lead the future of snacking by securing a sustainable future for high-quality cocoa. The company’s marketing department went into overdrive, coining the term ‘The right snack, for the right moment, made the right way’.
Cocoa sustainability is key to Mondelēz International’s long-term growth in Asia and around the world, as demand is growing with Asia set to become the second-largest consumer of cocoa.
Rob Hargrove, Executive Vice President, Research, Development and Quality for Mondelēz International said,
We’re on a mission to drive positive change by creating a future of sustainable snacking and that includes using our global scale to create meaningful, lasting impact.
The Pasuruan Cocoa Technical Center is the global home for cocoa crop science initiatives. Its purpose to bring local and international cocoa crop science experts together with farmers and suppliers in the cocoa growing areas of Sulawesi, Sumatra, and East Java.
Mondelēz scientists can go from the labs at the centre to field sites where they have research collaborations and on-farm activities through Cocoa Life, which seems like it might be a similar model to the ECOM SDM which we wrote an analysis of in this report.
The centre’s focus on cocoa crop science and technical solutions that support high-yielding, sustainable and resilient farming practices is a clear commitment to the company’s 2025 goal of sourcing 100 per cent of cocoa for chocolate through Cocoa Life.
The company says is on track to meet that target with 63 per cent of cocoa for its chocolate brands currently sourced through Cocoa Life.
