Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate published the latest progress report 2016 on Cocoa Promise on October 3. Launched in 2012, Cocoa Promise serves as the formal framework for the company's efforts in promoting cocoa sustainability. Working with almost 500 farmer organizations and cooperatives, Cocoa Promise has supported over 145,000 farmers in Brazil, Cameron, Ghana, Indonesia and Cote d'Ivoire.
According to Harold Poelma, the President of Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate, one of the key principles of Cargill is to support smallholder farmers to "build more resilient and sustainable businesses". He added that though "the challenges smallholder farmers face have changed, our strategy has evolved accordingly. Using the learnings and insights gathered over the years, we have charted a course for the future impact of the Cargill Cocoa Promise.”
This third report of Cocoa Promise highlights Cargill's advances in promoting direct sourcing, traceability, measures against deforestation, and improvement in the socioeconomic resilience and community wellbeing of the farmers in their supply chain.
Some of the milestones achieved by Cocoa Promise in the report are;
- 175 village savings and loans schemes have been set up in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire with over 4,000 beneficiaries.
- 145,000 farmers have been trained to understand the worst forms of child labor with 20,000 children benefiting from access to education and healthcare.
- 25,000 farmers in Ghana part of a scheme that allows their premiums to be paid to them directly through their mobile money accounts as part of farmer traceability processes.