These are complex and uncertain times. Our sector has been confronted by a convergence of global challenges – environmental changes, production shortfalls, price volatility, and regulatory plans, in addition to those we are already facing, including deforestation, as we aim to make cocoa sourcing more sustainable.

At Mondelēz International, we continue to focus strategically on where we believe we can make an impact and where the world needs it most. Cocoa, a key ingredient of our chocolate, is regarded as being at-risk of deforestation. We work closely with our key cocoa suppliers to supply us with deforestation-free cocoa. In addition, we remain focused on implementing the Cocoa Life program to help protect and restore forests in cocoa-producing countries. Since 2017, we’ve also been part of a key public-private partnership in this space - the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) - and work towards CFI’s goals through our Cocoa Life program.

OUR CFI 2023 PROGRESS

Today, we share our annual Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) progress report, disclosing our CFI progress from October 2022 to September 2023 in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. In the past year, we have been working with partners to continue implementing the program with ~89,000¹ registered farmers in Ghana and ~95,000² registered farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, continuing our approach of piloting, learning and scaling CFI initiatives, and driving landscape partnerships. We continue to connect key stakeholders to pilot and scale landscape-wide environmental initiatives, as well as driving ‘smart innovations’ through farm mapping technologies, agroforestry techniques and on- & off-farm tree planting.

In alignment with our CFI ambitions, we have:

• Scaled up farm mapping and tree distribution activities: Progress from October 2022 to September 2023 includes:
  • ~146,000³ Cocoa Life registered farms mapped in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
  • ~323,000³ hectares with deforestation risk assessments in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
  • ~1,208,000³ multi-purpose trees distributed for on-farm planting via agroforestry in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
  • ~952,000⁴ cocoa seedlings distributed to farmers in Ghana
• Worked with partners to implement Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in Côte d’Ivoire and the Modified Taungya System (MTS) in Ghana.
• Driven cocoa agroforestry pilots to help diversify farmers’ income and support biodiversity and work towards a bigger positive climate impact through carbon removals.
• Continued to co-lead with cocoa industry partners on the Asunafo-Asutifi North Landscape initiative to help establish a landscape governance structure that will work with key stakeholders to manage the area more sustainably.
• Continued to increase understanding of our impact on forests through farm mapping and a partnership with Satelligence.

WHAT’S NEXT

Deforestation remains a major environmental challenge, contributing to climate change and affecting local communities and ecosystems. For the cocoa industry, erratic weather, the El Niño climate phenomenon, drought, and disease have seriously impacted harvests across cocoa-producing countries. Now, our sector must also navigate new regulatory changes.

In the face of these big challenges and complexities, we aim to be bold to plan for the future, together. If we want to conserve land and forests for today and tomorrow, we need to act now. We aim to continue work on a sector-wide, integrated, and holistic approach aiming to protect both the landscapes and lift the people. We strive to come together to clarify how we will reach the ambitious but necessary CFI 2.0 ambitions on a landscape-wide level.

To do this, CFI stakeholders will have to reflect on the future of CFI in the context of the fast-changing cocoa sector environment. We believe this will be important to shape the way to help achieve our joint ambitions. So, let’s keep trying. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep learning.

To learn more about the Cocoa & Forests Initiative, follow #CocoaAndForests and #CocoaLife on LinkedIn, or visit the websites of our partners IDH and the World Cocoa Life Foundation at cocoandforests.org and WorldCocoa.org.