Mondelez International and Fairtrade will join Cadbury to extend its farmer-focused sustainability program Cocoa Life to core Cadbury Dairy Milk products in Australia and New Zealand from 2018.
The phased global rollout will start in the UK and Ireland in May 2017 before the program is extended across Cadbury chocolate brands globally.
In Australia and New Zealand, Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate will remain certified throughout 2017.
As part of the rollout of the program across Cadbury Dairy Milk, the Cocoa Life logo will be on wrappers from 2018.
The move comes as consumers demand to know the provenance of the chocolate they buy and whether cocoa farmers are adequately paid.
Mondelez launched its $400m Cocoa Life initiative in 2012 and by partnering with Fairtrade, says it will help drive greater scale and impact for cocoa farmers and their communities.
The expansion will see Mondelez-owned Cadbury products carry the Cocoa Life logo on front of pack.
Mondelez International will work with Fairtrade on programs relating to education on sustainability issues and “building resilience to climate change”, which farmers complain is a threat to their livelihoods.
To date, the Cocoa Life program has been rolled out across more than 795 cocoa farming communities around the world and independent verification shows that farmers in the Cocoa Life program in Ghana have seen their incomes increase 49 per cent more than farms outside the program, according to Mondelez.
The cocoa premiums paid to farmers under Cocoa Life will be the same as Fairtrade’s fixed premium of $200 per metric tonne.
Key benefits of the partnership will include:
- A $400m investment by 2022, empowering 200,000 farmers and reaching one million people in communities in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, India, and Brazil.
- Independently assessed improvements to the lives and livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities – farmer income has increased 49% more and cocoa yield increased 37% more in Ghanaian Cocoa Life communities than in communities outside the program.
- A competitive price for their cocoa, on clear terms of trade, and loyalty payments to Ghanaian farmers, which together with program investments, will deliver value per farmer at least equivalent to that previously delivered by Fairtrade premiums.
