Ferrero drives towards delivering Cocoa and Forests Initiative environmental targets

Italian-founded global confectionery brand Ferrero has joined other major firms in releasing its sustainability performance action plan to protect forests in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The business said it had made notable progress as part of its joint initiative with the two African governments alongside industry, with the likes of Olam, Mars Wrigley, Nestle and Barry Callebaut all having similarly issued updates on their work towards the Cocoa & Forest Initiative (CFI)

According to Ferrero, the company is on track to meet its commitments to the scheme, which it aims to implement by 2022, to protect forests used by the cocoa sector for the confectionery market, building on its initial environmental action plan released last year.

The company said: “For over 30% of our CFI indicators we are already close to reaching or have even exceeded our defined goals for 2022. This strong progress was possible due to the trusted partnership we have built with our suppliers over many years. We will even increase the targets where needed to continue delivering on ambitious goals.

“We are proud of our performance in the first year. It energises us to continue with the same dedication to make sure that we meaningfully contribute to this collective initiative and to the common goal of ending deforestation in the cocoa sector.”

The company added that in the first year of its plan, the company mapped more than 140,000 cocoa farms in total in both countries. It also developed more than 15,000 hectares of cocoa agroforestry in total Ghana and Ivory Coast. Furthermore, it distributed about 500,000 multi-purpose trees to farmers to plant on their farms, and trained over 90,000 farmers and organisations in Good Agricultural Practices and over 32,000 farmers in Climate Smart Cocoa.

Significantly, the business added that by the end of 2020, all the cocoa in its supply chain will come from sustainable sources, as well as aiming to have all farmers supplying the firm cocoa fully mapped. The firm that it had targeted supplies of beans to also be fully segregated by the close of this year.

“With the Cocoa & Forest Initiative we are bringing meaningful and lasting change into the cocoa sector. As Ferrero, we are very proud to contribute to this collective initiative and it is in line with our commitments and values as a family company. Moving forward, Ferrero will continue working to strengthen its cocoa sustainability program with a positive and lasting impact on the cocoa value chain,” says Marco Gonçalves, Chief Procurement & Hazelnut Company Officer at Ferrero.

The Ferrero CFI action plan is embedded in Ferrero’s overall cocoa sustainability strategy, which the company is currently updating to define a strong path forward. We invite you to read more about the Ferrero Farming Values Cocoa Program in Ferrero’s annual Corporate Social Responsibility report (pages 128 – 143).

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