The announcement marked the recent passing of the International Day of Forests celebration, as well as following announcements from other large confectionery companies claiming similar pledges on deforestation and traceability in their cocoa supply chains.
Mars has been a chocolate maker for over 100 years now and is one of the biggest users of cocoa. They are also a signatory to the World Cocoa Foundations’s Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI), which was established in 2018. The CFI is an active commitment of cocoa-producing countries Cote d’lvoire, Ghana and Colombia with leading chocolate and cocoa companies.
Cocoa for the Generations
This follows the release of Cocoa for Generations projects late last year. This is the company’s proposed strategy to get closer to a sustainable cocoa supply chain, which is also fully traceable by 2025.
Mars states:
“Our Cocoa for Generations plan embodies our sustainability strategy for cocoa, with protecting people and our planet at its core. Today’s announcement shares our success so far - we have already traced a quarter of our global supply chain. In order to achieve our 2025 ambition of a deforestation-free cocoa supply for cocoa we source, we will ensure that 100% traceability, and will only work with cocoa supply chain partners who can meet out Responsible Cocoa specifications. We are proud to share our actions to preserve and prompt forests for the future, because the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business for today.”
Additional actions Mars promises:
An ambitions of a deforestation-free cocoa supply chain by 2025
- Mapping via GPS 100% of the cocoa we source to farm level by 2025
- Disclosure of cocoa countries of origin
- Exclusively sourcing from suppliers who meet specification of traceability for direct sourcing by 2019 and indirect sourcing by 2022 in Cote and Ghana
- Detailed action plans for Cote and Ghana as part of contribution to the CFI
- In 2019 complete risk assessments for Indonesia, Brazil and Cameroon to be published in 2020
- Completion of risk assessments for Ecuador and other countries sourced from 2020
- Use of third parties to monitor and verify progress.