Exclusive: Farmforce sustainability mission continues in supporting sector’s long-term improvement
Pilar Castillo presenting at this year's World Confectionery Conference in Harrogate, UK.
Having successfully closed our World Confectionery Conference as a speaker this year, Pilar Castillo, head of sustainability at Farmforce, talks to Neill Barston about its next chapter engaging with key agricultural communities
Setting out to provide a more transparent and fair relationship between smallholder farmers and buyers within agricultural chains, including the cocoa sector is certainly an ambitious goal.
But just over a decade after the company was launched in Kenya, back in 2012 as part of the Syngenta Foundation, it has continued to make strides in developing solutions that are really making a difference on the ground.
Through utilising digital tools, the enterprise, which since 2017 has been headquartered in Oslo, Norway, as a private company, is continuing its quest to drive towards a fairer deal for those working directly within agricultural supply chains around the globe.
Its core activities include agricultural geomapping of core farming areas, yield forecasting and year-round tracking of growing patterns, has helped raise the bar in terms of what is being achieved for im- proving traceability in farming operations.
Notably, its reach has continued to expand at a considerable rate, reaching more than 1.1 million farmers in over 65 countries. Clearly, there are significant global challenges facing agriculture, and the cocoa trade is no exception, as the industry, particularly in West Africa, faces ongoing issues of child labour, deforestation and extremely low pay for the majority of those in the sector.
All these factors have continued to place a strain on the system, leading to many observers expressing concern on how to ensure the long-term viability of the market amid ongoing challenges.
However, as attendees of this year’s World Confectionery Conference discovered, Pilar Castillo, head of sustainability at Farmforce, who spoke at the event, revealed that there is indeed hope for the industry, as technological solutions deployed by groups such as itself, were helping point to a brighter future for the sector.
Speaking after the conference, she said that she remains especially passionate about her role with the company, which acts as a sustainability compliance and excellence partner for key stakeholders, including key businesses operating within the confectionery markets, such as Cargill, Cemoi, GCB Cocoa, as well as Fairtrade. “We’re very much geared towards the ‘first mile’ within farming, and as a company, we work to help customers with their commercial objectives on the ground, which is very much tied to sustainability.”
“This is something that isn’t separated, as if you want farmers that are empowered and productive, then you really need to tackle these challenges that relate to sustainability such as child labour, forced labour and illegal use of chemicals, so that you have a model that is both good for business, as well as people and the environment,” she enthused of its approach to engaging with the industry.
Ambitious mission
As she continued, traceability remains at the core of its approach as an organisation, describing it as ‘the cornerstone of everything,” which starts with individual analysis of companies’ operations.
This enables the group to establish the areas that can benefit from its inputs the most, examining how firms presently collect data, and specific areas that require mapping. Once this has step been completed, Farmforce’s key input comes in providing a tailored software solution focused on traceability and sustainability.
“One of our customers is Cargill, with whom we have worked with for many years, starting back in 2017. This collaboration began with creating traceability for its supply chain in West Africa.
“This has been really transformational for them, as they have been able to map, at scale, large amount of farmers, and get all of that rich traceability data to help their operations.
“Most recently, we had a collaboration to build an enterprise solution for them on the sustainability side. This platform powers its Cocoa Promise scheme, and we have seen significant impacts that have derived from the use of our digital tools.”
As she revealed, there had also been encouraging outcomes from its work in the sector with Fairtrade. According to Pilar, this took a slightly different form through seeking to empower co-operatives, for them to access project data and draw data-driven decisions from that information, rather than passing it on to others.
It allowed them to look at more training, and other outcomes that positively influence productivity, which has helped establish precise methods that work best at the heart of the communities that they are dealing with.
As for her own journey, Pilar, who is originally from South America, took an early interest in sustainability. After gaining a degree in economics at the University of Bristol, she went on to work within the impact investment sector as a management consultant for 14 years in China, with a special interest in agriculture within emerging markets.
Her role as head of sustainability at Farmforce has offered plenty of rewarding challenges, including relocating to Norway for the position at the firm’s headquarters, where its development continues to take shape significantly.
Pilar at this year’s World Confectionery Conference
“For me, it’s an exciting role. I have always been a very practical person, so I love the interaction between business and sustainability,” added Pilar, who noted a previous management role earlier in her career working in China, addressing unacceptable working conditions in factories, demonstrating how sustainability best practices across all aspects of companies is now central to day-to-day operations.
She added: “I think I am very lucky to be working in an organisation that has a very strong mandate, where the commercial side is very important, as is the impact mandate, so It makes it very interesting for me, as I can shape a lot in the role that I’m doing,” added the specialist, who says that the sheer variety of the post is also a major bonus.
World Confectionery Conference
Reflecting on her appearance at this year’s conference, Pilar stated that it had been an engaging experience. She said: “It was very interesting to come to the conference. I particularly liked the mix of various stakeholders in the value chain, which adds a lot of value when you have traders, processors, and brand owners, who all bring something different. I think this is particularly important when it comes to tackling some of the issues relating to sustainability.
“This was very relevant for us as sustainability is very much at the core of what we do at Farmforce,” she added, noting that the business is presently trialling an exciting new digital app-based project, Farmforce Connect, delivering a further expansion of its work.
This has huge potentially allowing an expanded of farmers to directly access critical agricultural data, weather forecasts, coaching and input deals, taking its prod- ucts to a new dynamic level for those who most need its advanced industry solutions.
Indeed, the furthering of its digital tools specifically for farmers may well prove crucial with major legislation that is being put forward within the EU aimed at tackling deforestation, as well as addressing climate and child labour within supply chains. The new legal framework, which includes the proposed EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) presently being put through the European Parliament is set to only permit the sale of cocoa, coffee, palm oil and other core supplies that can be proved to deforestation free.
With the regulatory landscape clearly shifting fast, industry has increasingly recognised the need for the kind of sustainability services that Farmforce has built up over the past decade to help drive improvements right across vital major agricultural chains.
- The World Confectionery Conference will return on 12 September 2024, set to be staged in Brussels, Belgium. To register for the event, visit the event website confectioneryconference.com and experience a look back at this year’s event, with an exclusive video review here.