Tony’s Chocoloney set to join the World Confectionery Conference
Pascal Baltussen, chief impact and operations officer of ethically focused confectionery brand Tony’s Chocolonely has become the latest major industry name to sign up as a speaker at our World Confectionery Conference this September.
Having recently joined the Amsterdam-headquartered business after spending almost a decade at Mars, he has brought significant experience working within the highest levels of the industry.
He joins a notably strong array of presentations for this year’s event including representation from Caobisco European confectionery trade association, Ferrero, Cama packaging equipment group, Baker Perkins, Kerry ingredients, Fairtrade, as well as major market analysis from Innova Market Insights and FMCG Gurus, offering a valuable window on some of the most significant trends across our markets.
As for Tony’s latest addition to our line-up to our World Confectionery Conference on 9 September at the Marriott Hotel, Brussels, he has a broad remit spanning strengthening co-op partnerships and perfecting our production line to getting more mission allies on board with the company’s “Open Chain” ethical sourcing programme.
Notably, its key sourcing initiative, based on five principles devised to help create a more direct and equal business model right across the supply chain, was represented at this year’s Chocoa cocoa and chocolate event in Amsterdam, highlighting the need for even greater support for core communities serving the global confectionery market.
Speaking to Confectionery Production ahead of his appearance at the World Confectionery Conference, Pascal reflected on its core mission of tackling child labour in supply chains.
“We’ve been working on this for over 10 years now looking at how we can tackle the issues of child labour and that it’s not ok for small children to work on farms, and the results that we see are incredibly impressive. It doesn’t come with one solution, but we are addressing this across five different areas, as the root cause of the problem is poverty,” explained the chief impact officer, who said that such a complex set of underlying conditions in core supplier markets in West Africa required a multi-faceted approach (see upcoming editions for additional coverage).
He added that Tony’s remains focused on transparency with regard to its operations within cocoa, and noted that while considerable challenges remained, he was optimistic that its work was making a notable difference to the farming communities with which it presently works.
Neill Barston, editor of Confectionery Production magazine, said: “Plans for our World Confectionery Conference are progressing strongly for our first live edition in 2022, so it’s great to have Pascal on board adding to further enhance what is already a strong range of businesses and organisations representing our full value chain across our industries.
“This is your prime chance to join in and celebrate some of the best achievements within the industry over the past couple of years, so don’t delay in registering for this year’s event in Brussels, including our World Confectionery Awards – your entries for this in particular, are very significant, so please do get in touch with your nominations as soon as possible.”
- For more details on how to register for this year’s World Confectionery Conference, as well as placing entries for this year’s awards, visit our dedicated website to book your place for the must-see industry event of the year.
