Mondelez has announced plans to invest an additional $600 million in its Cocoa Life programme by 2030. This makes the company the latest to step up its efforts to improve the lives of Cocoa farmers and reduce the risk of child labour in supply chains
The news came just before the World Cocoa Foundation’s annual meeting in Brussels. The company, which owns popular chocolate brands such as Cadbury and Toblerone, has already invested $400 million in sustainability funding, bringing the total to $1 billion by 2030
According to the World Economic Forum, Cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire earn only $1 and $0.78 per day, respectively. This figure is below the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day.
Mondelez hopes to work with about 300,000 farmers by 2030, a 50% increase from the current 200,000 farmers.
The Cocoa Life programme itself was launched in 2012 and aims to address the core issues that stand in the way of sustainable and ethical Cocoa production. These include farm productivity, farmer livelihoods, community development, child labour and deforestation. Since the launch of the programme, the company says they have seen an increase in farmers’ net income of about 15% in Ghana and 33% in Côte d’Ivoire.
As one of the leading snacking companies, it is a priority to continue making our most important ingredients, such as cocoa, right, and Cocoa Life sits at the heart of this strategy.
Dirk Van de Put, CEO, Mondelez International
While we are excited about the promise of our investments, we are calling for more sector-wide efforts and actions to drive greater impact, including new private-public partnerships, as we aim to catalyse ground-breaking collaboration to help move cocoa forward together.
Currently, 61% of Cocoa Life communities in West Africa are covered by child labour monitoring and elimination systems, with a target of 100% by 2025.
An estimated 1.56 million children work in West African Cocoa production for the $100 billion chocolate industry.
Major chocolate companies have committed to eradicating the practice, but it has proven difficult to achieve.
The issue of child labour is highly contentious, and there is no easy solution, but most agree that better education for young people in Cocoa farming communities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire will help avoid child labour.
