World Cocoa Foundation partnership meeting places sustainability at its core
The World Cocoa Foundation has reported ‘a huge demand’ for its 2022 event taking place this month, with some of the sector’s biggest businesses gathering to discuss key topics, writes Neill Barston.
As the Washington-headquartered organisation noted, it has closed pre-event registrations for its 2022 Partnership Meeting, the leading global event on sector sustainability, which is being held as a live event in Brussels, for the first time in three years.
More than 350 people have registered for the event, taking place between October 26-27, with the previous two events having taken place online due to the pandemic.
“We’ve had huge demand for this event due to the powerful line-up of influential speakers and the strength of the agenda,” said Chris Vincent, WCF’s Interim President. “The event’s theme of ‘Partnerships for Impact’ is resonating strongly with attendees and we are confident this collaborative, leadership forum will allow stakeholders to convene, share best practices and explore new solutions to sector challenges.”
For the first time at a Partnership Meeting, the event agenda features a discussion among three chief executive officers: Peter Boone of Barry Callebaut, Mark Schneider of Nestlé, and Dirk van de Put of Mondelēz International.
It also includes the strongest representation from the European Union at a Partnership Meeting with an address by Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament, and statements from two European Commissioners: Didier Reynders and Jutta Urpilainen.
With robust representation from cocoa-growing countries and cocoa farmers, the program includes ministers and senior officials from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, and the United States. Themes being covered range from traceability to pricing to the U.S. perspective on sustainability in cocoa.
The event has strong sponsorship from WCF company members with Ofi as Platinum sponsor, Hershey as Gold and Ecom as reception sponsor. Silver sponsors are Cargill, Farmerline, Lindt & Sprüngli, Mondelēz International, and Nestlé.