Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate. The essentials united.
UTZ Certified & Cargill
Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate’s deep involvement in the cocoa chain has allowed us to take the lead in a multi-stakeholder initiative to improve the sustainability of the cocoa sector. The UTZ Certified ‘Good Inside’ cocoa program implements a credible certification and traceability system for mainstream cocoa to ensure that both the industry and consumers know that the cocoa is produced in a sustainable, responsible and safe way.
The UTZ Certified code of conduct was developed through a participative process involving companies, producers, NGOs and research agencies from around the world. Farmers are trained in the code through Cargill’s Farmer Field Schools. The training focuses not only on social and environmental best practices but on improving the quality of the crop. As a result, UTZ certification benefits the farmers economically while producing high-quality cocoa and chocolate.
Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate is co-founder of the UTZ Certified ‘Good Inside’ cocoa program, which was launched in 2008 in Côte d‘Ivoire. In 2009 we trained 1,690 farmers in Côte d‘Ivoire in Farmer Field Schools. In September 2009, after an independent audit, the first co-operatives received certification. The first UTZ Certified cocoa and chocolate became available in March 2010.
In 2010, 300 Farmer Field Schools will train 10,000 cocoa farmers in 35 farming co-operatives, resulting in 10,000Mt of sustainably grown cocoa. Over the next few years the program will be scaled up and extended to other cocoa producing countries, so that the availability of UTZ Certified cocoa will increase.
UTZ Certified is designed as a mainstream model that seeks to implement a worldwide certification and traceability program for responsible commodity production and sourcing. It has grown to be one of the largest coffee certification programs worldwide, and is now expanding to include tea, palm oil and cocoa.
The steering members of the ‘Good Inside’ cocoa program are UTZ Certified, Cargill, ECOM Agroindustrial, Heinz, Ahold, Mars and Nestlé.
