As the cocoa sector at large faces great challenges, Mondelēz International is continuing to take action to help improve the resilience of the cocoa supply chain. Despite supply being hindered largely due to weather and with lower production causing price rises, we continue to focus our efforts to support our goal of a thriving cocoa sector. We believe that the investments in our Cocoa Life program help to tackle systemic challenges in cocoa farming communities and align with our wider sourcing strategies; with the aim that the chocolate category and our business emerge stronger.

Mondelēz International’s 2024 Snacking Made Right Report provides an update on progress against our sustainability goals and ongoing Cocoa Life collaborations in eight cocoa-producing countries. It tells how, despite a complex and rapidly evolving environment, we continue our aim to help support people and protect the landscapes where cocoa beans grow, and work across the cocoa sector to co-create new solutions to help make transformational impact.

2024 has been a mix of progress and further challenges. We have continued to scale the program focused on helping to support farming communities while preparing for upcoming regulations – all against the backdrop of crop deficits, shifting market conditions, and disrupted supply chains. We recognize that important work remains to be done. As such, we aim to develop long-term solutions that are thoughtful, flexible, and designed to address changes we’re already seeing.

2024 progress update across our key areas

Reaching around 208,000¹ registered farmers and impacting approximately 3,200² communities through the Cocoa Life program, we continued working towards our 2025 goal to source all cocoa volume for our chocolate brands through the program, on a mass balance basis³. By the end of 2024, approximately 91% of cocoa volume for Mondelēz International chocolate brands was sourced through Cocoa Life³.

I want to highlight some of the progress I am most proud of achieved by the end of 2024.

Independent third-party limited assurance has been attained on a set of Cocoa Life program metrics. You can view the latest statement here.

Partnership is key to lasting change

Cocoa Life is built on collaboration with farming communities, cocoa farming organizations, supply chain partners, non-governmental organizations, governments and external advisors. Our experience of implementing the program in diverse geographies for more than a decade has underscored the reality that changing systems takes time and requires ambitious collaboration that prioritizes the needs of cocoa farmers and their communities.

I’m therefore proud to share some collaboration highlights from 2024, as we remained actively engaged in partnerships that we believe are critical to address the sector challenges and unlock new opportunities for cocoa communities:

• At the heart of our program are the partnerships with farmers and farmer organizations. This year, our longstanding co-operative partner, ECAM, celebrated its 20-year anniversary that I was honored to attend in Côte d’Ivoire. Over the years, the ECAM cooperative established a robust organizational structure which enabled them to become an official Cocoa Life implementing partner, supporting their farmers with Cocoa Life activities and technical guidance.
• Mondelēz International and Care International expanded their partnership with a new initiative, Opportunities for Entrepreneurship Pathways (OP-EN), to unlock profitable and viable business opportunities for VSLAs. We expect to develop, test and roll out an industry best-in-class approach to entrepreneurship in cocoa communities.
• We continued to partner in the multi-stakeholder initiative, Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF), an active and growing coalition that brings together the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, 16 cocoa and chocolate companies, and two philanthropic foundations with the vision to transform the country’s education landscape in cocoa-growing regions. Inspired by this groundbreaking landscape-wide initiative in Côte d’Ivoire, we support the development of a similar initiative in Ghana.
• In seeking forest protection and restoration, we continued to participate in the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) and the Asunafo-Asutifi landscape partnership in Ghana.

Moving cocoa forward faster

Despite positive progress, the cocoa sector continues to face systemic challenges, further complicated by environmental changes, the spread of disease, production shortfalls, poor practices, unsustainable price volatility, farmer livelihoods at risk, and new regulations.

But these challenges give rise to opportunity – the realisation that these complex issues cannot be solved alone. Today we have a better understanding of the root causes behind these challenges. I see a unique moment for cocoa: to develop public-private partnerships with improved coordination, reduced duplication, and breakthrough collaboration. I believe that it is only when all stakeholders are considered and supported that long-term aspirations for change can be attained.

Thank you to all our implementing partners – particularly our suppliers as they navigate supply chain disruptions and NGOs operating in the complex external environment – for the close dialogue and continued engagement to support cocoa farming communities.

We continue to encourage others in the cocoa sector and beyond to come together to define our shared ambition and the collective action needed to make it a reality. In all our partnerships and collaborations, it is critical to remain centered on the needs of farmers.