Ferrero will buy 40,000 metric tons of Fairtrade-certified cocoa between 2016 and 2019, as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to source sustainably certified cocoa.
The ongoing partnership with Fairtrade ensure cooperatives in Ivory Coast can sell their cocoa on Fairtrade terms, creating positive benefits for farmers, their families and the broader community.
This year saw Ferrero win the Fairtrade Award 2018 for its commitment to the Fairtrade Cocoa Program and its enduring partnership with Fairtrade and cooperative union ECOOKIM.
Ferrero has doubled its commitment to Fairtrade cocoa since the two organisations started working together in 2014, with the latest announcement bringing Ferrero to its cocoa-sustainability goal.
“The Fairtrade cocoa is a key component of reaching our objective of 100-per-cent-certified sustainable cocoa by 2020,” Ferrero Director of Cocoa Procurement Aldo Cristiano said.
More than 10,000 farmers are part of ECOOKIM, the largest Fairtrade certified cocoa association in Ivory Coast and one of the sources of Ferrero’s supply. The more cocoa that farmers can sell on Fairtrade terms, the better off they are, with payments including premiums to farmer cooperatives that can fund a range of beneficial programs or investments, from tools to training and community development initiatives.
The Fairtrade Premium is an additional sum of money paid directly to the cooperative to improve agricultural practices and help communities to develop. This Premium paid by Ferrero in 2016 has enabled, among other things, the building of water pumps and a school for the ECOOKIM communities.
Fairtrade has also launched a program to protect children and prevent exploitative child labour in cocoa-producing communities by developing protection policies, surveying risks and improving education and employment within the cooperative.