The German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO), Belgian platform Beyond Chocolate, and the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO) have combined forces to support important communities in the cocoa supply chain.
The organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), under which they would bring together a large part of the national cocoa and chocolate industry, retailers, civil society organisations, research institutions, and representatives of the respective national government.
The platforms want to stimulate efforts to combat the key issues in the cocoa industry by cooperating. These include eliminating the worst forms of child labour, achieving a living income for the cocoa farmers and their families, improving the transparency and traceability in the cocoa supply chain, and stopping the deforestation linked to cocoa production.
The three countries account for about 19% of the global cocoa imports, mainly sourced from West Africa, and 11% of the worldwide cocoa consumption. In January 2018, the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa and the Swiss Platform already signed a MoU.
This agreement also includes the multi-stakeholder initiative Beyond Chocolate, established in Belgium in December 2018. One of the agreement’s foundations is the adapted monitoring system.
The three platforms have agreed on common Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to monitor and report on the cocoa sector’s four main challenges:
- child labour
- Poverty of farmers
- Cocoa traceability, and
- Deforestation.
The next step is the additional development of the standard monitoring system. For this, the three initiatives created the KPI’s to monitor progress on the strategic objectives.
The three cocoa platforms together build the basis of
a coordinated European approach towards a sustainable cocoa value chain. We
have all important actors on board
The three cocoa platforms together build the basis of a coordinated European approach towards a sustainable cocoa value chain. We have all important actors on board.
Wolf Kropp-Büttner, Chairman of the Board of the German Initiative on
Sustainable Cocoa
A priority issue is also the due diligence of human rights in the cocoa supply chain. We understand this to mean there will be a framework to evaluate and verify claims, although the details were not provided.
The group will organise workshops, events and activities to support the development of a sustainable cocoa value chain.
