Kraft Foods is extending its commitment to sustainable cocoa farming by launching the first European mainstream chocolate brand to carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) seal.
By the end of 2012, the company has committed to use only cocoa beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) farms across its entire Cote d’Or and Marabou ranges, equal to some 30,000 tons of beans.
Beginning in France and Belgium, Cote d’Or premium dark chocolate will now contain cocoa from farms that meet the sustainability standard of the Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) program. The product line will be rolled out to the UK, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. It will also be made available in Sweden, Denmark and Finland under the Marabou brand; and under the Suchard brand in Austria and Switzerland.
Since 2005, Kraft Foods has been working with the Rainforest Alliance, leading development organizations in Germany and the US – Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – as well as with the cocoa trader, Armajaro, to support sustainable cocoa production in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa.
"Our collaboration with Kraft Foods and grassroots groups in Cote d’Ivoire will result in long-term, positive changes in the lives of cocoa farmers, their families, communities and the ecosystems on which they depend," said Edward Millard of Rainforest Alliance. "Working together, we are protecting water, wildlife and soils, while training a new generation of farmers in the economic, environmental and social benefits of sustainable agriculture."
The public-private partnership, known as the "Market-Oriented Promotion of Sustainable Certified Cocoa Production" project, has enabled six Ivorian cooperatives, representing over 2000 farmers in the Daloa/Issia and Abengourou areas, to gain the Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) seal. The results have been encouraging. The last crop year alone witnessed improved yields and significant productivity gains, in some cases above 50%. The incidence of cocoa ‘black pod’ disease was also reduced by one third and farmer incomes have improved.
Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) is the world’s second largest food company with annual revenues of $42 billion. The company is a member of Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Ethibel Sustainability Index.
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