Can the TogetherCocoa Foundation truly drive systemic change?

One of the defining themes of this year’s World Cocoa Foundation Partnership meeting, was of the need to not only collaborate across the industry, but translate that into firm actions, and quickly.

The issue was very neatly put at the key recent event in Amsterdam through  Liberato Milo, Nestlé’s head of confectionery and snacking, stating that “There will be no cocoa industry left if we don’t collectively create long-term value across the complete value chain.”

As he asserted, the time to act decisively was very much in the moment, which is set against the backdrop of the fact that for more than two decades, major businesses have made specific sustainability pledges relating to eradicating child labour – which has yet to be materially delivered at scale, as well as programmes dedicated to wider social support and addressing core issues of tackling climate change impact. The reality is that it will take major investment from combined sources from industry, civil society and governments to achieve this.

But given that the governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana last month moved to reduce farm gate farmer pay by around 30% amid a major slump in prices, which placed further strain on poverty-hit cocoa communities, it is incredibly hard to see quite where that much needed finance will come from.

To date, as far as this title is aware, the only major company to actually put a pure figure on how much it would cost to bridge the living income gap for farmers in West Africa, was Mondelez’s No Silver Bullets study back in 2020. This asserted that it would take some $10 billion to raise agricultural communities to achieve a living wage in the region. We’re now more than five years on from that, so the true cost is probably quite a few billion more than its studies indicated then.

But it is an astonishingly high level of money that is required to address long-term infrastructure underfunding, as well as a market that has revolved around the notion of supplying low cost chocolate to most of the world.

So where do we stand now? Well, in the immediate  aftermath of global headlines alerting of a fresh, renewed cocoa crisis in West Africa as prices spiralled downwards on commodities markets, major companies have in fact stepped forward, with a new potential front from which to build collective action more rapidly.

This comes in the form of the new TogetherCocoa Foundation, forged as an initiative from Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, Hershey and Lindt, which has set out a core goal of supporting cocoa operations in earning a living wage as its prime directive. There has been little communicated as yet, as to how this would be achieved, or the timescales, funding or specific programme of action to be taken – but it is certain that it has stemmed from an understanding that firm, decisive and coordinated action on the ground that cuts beyond individual sustainability programme work is what is required at this stage.

While the formation of such collectives is indeed to be welcomed – one of the most immediate points to emerge from its development is the fact that there are still some very major names who are not yet seemingly attached to the foundation, including some of the very largest in the sector. Will they be convinced to join up, or have they decided not to? 

What was certainly crystal clear from the WCF meeting in Amsterdam (see our exclusive video review below), was that only through the entire industry pulling together as one, can meaningful impact be fully realised at scale in helping the several million cocoa farmers operating in West Africa.

The world will be watching eagerly over the coming months as to whether the foundation, as well as other international actions, including the delivery of EUDR regulations and laws against forced labour will have the impact in driving systemic change that has been long-desired by the farming community and all those who have the sector’s future interests at heart.

Neill Barston, editor, Confectionery Production

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