A series of key milestones have been reported by Mars, Incorporated, which has asserted success in its cocoa sustainability programme, which now includes 98% of crop supplies in its responsible sourcing initiative, reports Neill Barston.

The company has continues its decade-long venture that has included $1 billion investment into providing support for producing nations in its core value chain in West Africa.

Notably, the company’s 2025 edition of its Cocoa For Generations Progress report explored significant learnings and best practice, against a backdrop of an industry that has faced renewed crisis in Ghana and Ivory Coast amid high pricing volatility, crop disease and adverse weather conditions that have led to significant El Nino weather warnings for this autumn. 

The report marks an important milestone in the company’s 10-year, $1 billion USD Cocoa for Generations commitment (2018-2028) to help strengthen cocoa-growing communities and protect the environment. As several long-running programs concluded in 2025, Mars is incorporating key learnings and best practices into the next phase of its work, including the Mars Journey to Thrive Programme.

As the business noted, its report also features highlights from the three pillars of Modern, Inclusive and Sustainable of the Cocoa for Generations strategy.

This includes devising new cocoa clones, releasing improved cocoa planting materials in Brazil and Indonesia: releasing two new clones ISC1 and SCC11 in collaboration with the Indonesia National Research and Innovation Agency, and registering 37 high-productivity, disease-resistant cocoa clones with the Brazil Ministry of Agriculture.

Furthermore, the business has devised AI-powered tools to help elevate capabilities across the cocoa supply chain. This includes Cocoascan, a tool to help Latin American farmers detect potential visual indicators of three infectious diseases (Witches’ Broom, Frosty Pod and Black Pod), and Cocoa Fresh AI, a mobile app that helps modernize wet and dry bean supply chains from a slow, manual process.

The confectionery group also claimed additional climate-focused interventions, including its first climate-smart agriculture programme with suppliers in Latin America, engaging 430 farmers across 3,541 hectares. The cohort applied climate-smart agriculture interventions to enhance soil health and cocoa crop yields, as well as making gains against its emissions reduction objectives which are working to net zero targets.

“2025 was a landmark year for Cocoa for Generations, signifying a turning point in our efforts to help address the industry’s most deep-rooted, interconnected challenges,” said Benjamin Guilbert, Global Senior Vice President, Cocoa Enterprise at Mars. “These challenges require collaboration and collective efforts among the stakeholders in the cocoa sector; the development and implementation of integrated, scalable and sustainable solutions; and transparency from companies on progress made.”

In addition, the business marked more than a decade of its  Women for Change initiative – exceeding  its targets, achieving 106,239 VSLA members, 77% of whom are female, and generated $26.56 million USD in savings and $17.68 million in loans.

The company acknowledged that it is evolving its approach with sub-strategies including its Journey to Thrive scheme, which was established in late 2024. This has been designed to,combines agronomy and community-level interventions — including conditional cash incentives, professional subsidised farm labor and VSLAs — to help improve and advance economic resilience and well-being, equality within households and education in cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire. Funded alongside leading suppliers and nonprofit organizations, the program impacted 9,334+ cocoa farmer households by the end of 2025.

As the snacking giant concluded, it is  supporting farms of all sizes to improve productivity, adopt better farming practices, strengthen farm management capabilities and build more reliable income streams.

Furthmore, a major part of this is seeking to drive greater resilience, encouraging opportunities for farmers to diversify their income, and through assisting farmers engage with climate-smart and regenerative agricultural practices, using latest scientific and technology approaches.