Barry Callebaut initiated an industry movement on sustainable coconut, in partnership with USAID Green Invest Asia, to create The Sustainable Coconut & Coconut Oil Roundtable, a platform for sustainable coconut production, in early 2019. The Roundtable brings together buyers, processors and other actors actively involved in the coconut supply chain, to establish a sustainable coconut and coconut oil value chain and achieve real systemic change in coconut farming.
In 2020, Barry Callebaut became a signatory of the coconut industry’s first Sustainable Coconut Charter. The Charter is an industry collaboration that outlines focus areas, principles and sustainability program outcomes in coconut supply chains. It also aims to harmonize buyers’ requirements for supply chain partners. Through the Roundtable and Charter we hope to improve smallholder farmers’ income and livelihoods, enhance supply chain traceability, and prevent deforestation and mitigate climate change.
Barry Callebaut is addressing sustainable sourcing, transparency and investment challenges in the Philippines and Indonesia through:
- The creation of a nascent public-private partnership among leading coconut buyers to improve coconut farmers’ livelihoods, incomes and yields to help ensure continued supply – collectively aiming at improving yield and livelihood of thousands of coconut farmers. This is set to be the largest project focused on the coconut supply chain to date.
- Piloting an assessment tool together with Nestlé and Proforest to conduct and report on sustainable coconut assessments in line with the Charter. This provides a common approach for assessing and evaluating issues in the supply chain.
Contact your Barry Callebaut sales representative to enable the sustainable sourcing of chocolate ingredients, including coconut oil, in your end-product.
