Puratos reveals Cacao-Trace sustainability programme progress
Belgian headquartered Puratos has revealed that its Cacao-Trace sustainable programme driven through its Belcolade premium brand delivered a key €3.2 million “Chocolate Bonus” last year to farming communities, reports Neill Barston.
As the company asserted, the increased sum represents a 33% increase year-on-year, as it noted an additional €3.8 million also being paid in the form of its unique Quality Premium.
Significantly, as the business noted, a total of 19,000 customer partners now involved in the scheme, marking its highest ever annual payments to cocoa farmers and their communities, ensuring a life-changing impact for a record number of them: 24,073 across eight countries.
The Chocolate Bonus, determined by the amount of Cacao-Trace chocolate sold each year, directly boosts farmer income as well as funding health and education projects in cocoa-growing communities. In 2024, it enabled the construction of 72 water facilities (including towers, tanks and pumps) and seven school projects. In addition, the Quality Premium is paid (on top of the farmgate price) to all Cacao-Trace farmers to reflect the superior quality of the wet cocoa beans they deliver.
“We’re incredibly proud of what we achieved in our last year,” states Youri Dumont, chocolate business unit lead for Puratos. “Our guiding principle is ‘Great Taste, Doing Good,’ and the payments we made to our farmers and communities reflect clearly how Cacao-Trace delivers on both these fronts.
He added: “As it approaches its tenth anniversary next year, the Bonus has now paid out over €10 million over the course of its history, thanks to the customers who share our values and choose this one-of-a-kind chocolate. This money is fundamental to better farmer incomes and goes into life-changing community projects including initiatives like the distribution of school kits and building maternity facilities in cocoa-growing regions.”
In addition, the company explained that its latest Cacao-Trace report details significant progress across all its cocoa-growing countries, with the launch of several new initiatives.
This has included a critical project to build further awareness and transparency of the challenges facing the cocoa industry, evidenced by over 150 customers visiting its facilities, to see its programmes in action.
In the pursuit of ‘Great Taste,’ a new grinding line was launched in Mexico following the introduction of the program’s first in-house cocoa bean roasting line in Vietnam, allowing a greater level of process control to meet Cacao-Trace’s high quality standards. Peru saw the opening of a new post-harvest centre, which aims to ferment over 1,000 tons of beans annually, promising not only higher quality cocoa, but also a brighter future for local farmers and their communities.
Dumont added: “When it comes to Great Taste, quality has been fundamental since day one. The Cacao-Trace approach – from our wet bean strategy, through our unique fermentation expertise to careful drying and roasting – means Cacao-Trace chocolate truly stands out in the market and has incredible appeal to, and value for, professionals and consumers alike.
“In fact, all Belcolade chocolate innovations are Cacao-Trace certified, recognizing the program’s great taste and benefits for farmers. Ultimately, the long-term success of the program, and our ability to enhance farmer livelihoods, has always been inherently linked to great-tasting chocolate and the partnerships we have with an ever-growing number of customers.”
Alongside its recent successes, the Cacao-Trace report casts an eye forward – towards a fairer and more sustainable cocoa and chocolate industry in the future. It confirms that the program is ahead of schedule in its aim to plant 1,194,378 trees by the end of 2025, for instance, and on track to reach over 25,000 farmers this year. Longer term, the aim by 2030 is the distribution of an €8 million Chocolate Bonus, to 50,000 farmers.
IBA showcase
In addition to success with its sustainability programmes, the company is enjoying a notably busy period in exhibiting this week at the key IBA bakery and confectionery event.
The company has released a novel bakery improver that enhances both convenience and sustainability, mouthwatering sprouted grains that boost fiber content and taste while retaining sensory properties and a reimagined brioche concept that preserves indulgence while significantly reducing environmental impact.
At iba 2025, Puratos will unveil Cubease, a highly concentrated bakery improver that represents a major leap forward in convenience, efficiency, and sustainability. Unlike traditional improver formats, Cubease delivers powerful functionality in a remarkably compact form—each lightweight cube is precisely dosed to treat 10kg of flour.
This eliminates the need for manual weighing, reduces handling time, and removes the strain of lifting heavy ingredient bags—streamlining daily operations while improving accuracy. I
In addition, Puratos will present a reimagined approach to brioche that addresses two of the baking industry’s most pressing challenges: environmental impact and rising production costs. Through smart formulation and process innovation, the company’s new concept can reduce carbon footprint by up to 40% and enables cost savings of up to 25%, all while preserving the rich, indulgent qualities that characterize traditional brioche.
Frederik Lievens, Chief Product Officer at Puratos comments: “We fundamentally believe in “food Innovation for good” and the launches we’ll reveal at iba are evidence of our commitment to constant progress and improvement. We are really excited to launch three truly impactful innovations at this year’s show and look forward to seeing how they are received by our valued customers and the wider market.”
