News and our stories GROUP

In collaboration with Gold Standard and Agolin, Barry Callebaut has developed a new methodology to quantify and certify CO2 insetting for dairy within our chocolate supply chain.

Chocolate as nature intended, revealed by chefs: a unique couverture chocolate made from 100% pure cacaofruit

Originating from the Amazon basin, cocoa’s natural habitat lies under the shade canopies of humid rainforests. Today, most of the world's cocoa comes from small, sun-drenched farms in West Africa. Driven by increasing consumer demand, cocoa farming encroachment into forests and other lands to increase yields, has caused deforestation and habitat degradation. A highly biodiverse cocoa farm has been shown to be drought, disease and pest resilient, and produce higher yields.

There is growing evidence showing a causal relationship between deforestation, the acceleration of climate change, and the extinction of precious flora and fauna. But identifying and measuring deforestation and the cultivation of specific commodities at large scale and in sufficient detail is notoriously difficult.

Deforestation is a major issue in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply. Launched In 2017, the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and leading cocoa and chocolate companies, representing 85% of global cocoa usage, joined together to form the Cocoa & Forests Initiative.

At Barry Callebaut we are also focusing our carbon reduction efforts on emissions that extend beyond our direct operations (scope 3). As a result, for the second consecutive year, we have been recognized by CDP as a Supplier Engagement Leader, placing us in the top 7% of over 5,600 companies assessed in 2020.

We have made great progress on our journey to become carbon positive by 2025. Our carbon reduction efforts in fiscal year 2019/20 have resulted in a -8.1% reduction of our corporate carbon footprint, from 8.5 million tonnes to 7.8 million tonnes CO2e (carbon equivalents).

On December 3, 2020, our fourth Forever Chocolate Report will be published showing the progress we are making towards our 2025 targets. Innovation is at the heart of our advancement, and this year, we embarked on an exciting and industry first project to commence the transformation of cocoa by-products into biochar.

In tune with consumers’ turn to tasty and nutritious food and drinks that also do good for the planet, Barry Callebaut created a new brand: Cabosse Naturals.

In this interview, Angela Gubser, Managing Director, Ecuador describes how Cocoa Horizons has been successfully introduced to the world’s third largest producer of cocoa.

By publicly sharing the geographic location of the cooperatives and districts we source from we are contributing to transparency and traceability in our cocoa supply chain.

Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate has been ranked by Sustainalytics as the #2 sustainability strategy, out of 182 assessed companies in the packaged food industry.

As part of our Forever Chocolate commitments, we aim to be carbon and forest positive by 2025. Working with Quantis, we have developed an innovative assessment which will help us and our customers link forest protection activities with carbon reduction goals.

In late 2019, we followed Deborah Osei Mensah as she traveled to Ecuador to learn different farming techniques and her vision for a rehabilitated, diverse and professionally run cocoa farm. We caught up with Deborah to hear more about her story to become a farmer and how COVID-19 has impacted her.