Barry Callebaut, a global manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa solutions, has launched its first dairy partnership to reduce impact on climate emissions with Arla Foods, through the FarmAhead Customer Partnership program.
This three-year collaboration marks an important step in the decarbonisation of Barry Callebaut’s dairy supply chain, starting with skimmed milk powder sourced from the UK.
Through this partnership, Arla will provide annual primary carbon footprint data linked to the dairy volumes supplied to Barry Callebaut at farm level.
This will support the company’s Scope 3 emissions reduction journey and accelerate the roll-out of decarbonisation initiatives on dairy farms in the shared supply chain.
The collaboration marks an important milestone in advancing Barry Callebaut’s Net Zero roadmap and reinforces its efforts to develop scalable low-carbon dairy solutions with strategic suppliers.
It also contributes to Barry Callebaut’s broader Net Zero Chocolate Solutions, which enable customers to reduce the end-to-end footprint of their cocoa and chocolate products through targeted partnerships.
“Decarbonising dairy is essential to reducing our carbon footprint, and this partnership is a testament to our commitment to driving meaningful progress on our Net Zero journey,” said Tilmann Silber, head of Net Zero at Barry Callebaut.
“By working closely with partners like Arla, we can increase transparency in our dairy supply chain and accelerate the development of scalable decarbonisation initiatives that support our Scope 3 reduction targets and contribute to ongoing sustainability efforts in the food chain.”
This partnership represents the interconnectedness of sustainability and sourcing working together at Barry Callebaut, and demonstrates that decarbonisation is not only about carbon data, but about building long-term partnerships capable of driving change at farm level.
“Dairy is one of the most complex categories to reduce carbon footprint, and meaningful progress requires close collaboration across the entire value chain,” said Gabriela Aramayo, responsible sourcing lead for Dairy at Barry Callebaut.
“What makes this initiative particularly important is the ability to connect climate ambition with concrete action at farm level through long-term engagement with suppliers and farmers.
“This collaboration with Arla represents an important step in developing credible and measurable lower-carbon dairy sourcing solutions for the future.”
According to Cathrine Konge Varming, senior director of Sustainability Innovation and Development at Arla, the company is pleased to work closely with Barry Callebaut on their shared goal to reduce emissions from dairy.
“Through the partnership, we can further support the actions our farmer owners are taking to produce high-quality dairy as efficiently as possible while providing valuable data for Barry Callebaut's reporting purposes,” she added.
“It is a clear example of two ambitious companies living up to their responsibility and recognising the importance of collaboration.”
Key principles of the partnership include primary farm-level carbon footprint reporting, alignment with recognized greenhouse gas (GHG) and dairy carbon methodologies, and the use of incentive payments for farmers that apply practices that reduce emissions.
This strategic partnership between Barry Callebaut and Arla marks an important milestone in Barry Callebaut’s Net Zero roadmap.
As the company’s first partnership focused on reducing on-farm emissions and incentivising farmers in dairy, the initiative lays a strong foundation for future collaborations and reinforces Barry Callebaut’s commitment to decarbonising its value chain, thereby also supporting its customers to achieve their own climate targets.
