Mars, Mondelez, Hershey, Lindt and Nestlé combine to forge the TogetherCocoa Foundation

A major industry collaboration has been unveiled between  Mars Incorporated, Mondelēz International, Lindt & Sprüngli, Nestlé and Hershey, in forming the TogetherCocoa Foundation, focused on enabling greater farmer earnings and wider support, reports Neill Barston.

The new organisation, which will be registered in Geneva, Switzerland, has asserted a core goal of reducing the living income gap for households in core Ivory  Coast and Ghana producing nations serving the sector.

Its formation comes amid a period of sustained crisis for the cocoa industry, which has been hit with a near perfect storm of price volatility over the past two years, climate change impact affecting crop yields, and additional concerns over an increasing amount of farming land being turned over to illegal ‘galamsey’ gold mining operations.

Significantly, one of the greatest challenges and concerns for the industry remains stamping out child labour, with the most recent studies from the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF stating that around 1.5 million minors are impacted by the issue – which does not appear to be majorly be reducing in recent years, amid fresh industry crisis. 

The matter is of critical importance, and reflects the fact that many farmers are financially unable to hire adult labourers, and are therefore forced to continue turning to their own families for direct assistance with their operations, as their earnings remain some way below poverty line wages, according to sector reports.

As Lindt noted, the foundation builds on the existing efforts of the five companies to help close the living income gap for cocoa farming households in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and will drive industry-wide collaborative action to help strengthen the resilience of the cocoa supply chain.

According to the leading chocolate business, the foundation will engage closely with the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, actors in the cocoa supply chain, and the wider cocoa sector. As the Swiss firm noted, the foundation is still in its early stages, and more details will be shared as the initiative progresses.

As the company added, beyond investing in the livelihoods of cocoa farming families through the foundation, it is committed to working towards its Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program objectives.

For its part, Hershey stated that it was pleased be joining with the brand majors, adding that it was looking forward to sharing more details as the foundation’s work progresses.

The business stated: “The Hershey Company remains fully committed to our existing cocoa sustainability, children’s wellbeing and farmer professionalization programs as we continue pursuing our shared goals of supporting farmers and the communities at the heart of cocoa.”