ECOM – one of the world’s largest suppliers of cocoa beans and ingredients to leading chocolate manufacturers and consumer food brands – published its Smarter Cocoa Charter, which sets commitments and time-bound targets to drive forward its mission to grow a smarter future for cocoa. The Charter is published in ECOM’s first-ever sustainability report for cocoa in reference to the GRI Standards, also launched.
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The new Charter outlines ECOM’s continued commitment to put farmers at the heart of its operations and to empower their resilience to the impacts of climate change. It is based on three pillars: i) improve farmer and worker livelihoods, ii) protect and regenerate nature, and iii) manage change through transparency and traceability.
Nicolas de Wasseige, Deputy CEO of Cocoa at ECOM, said: “With more than 170 years of experience as a commodity trader, ECOM is deeply familiar with the social and environmental challenges that come with trading raw agricultural materials within complex global supply chains. Our Smarter Cocoa Charter creates a clear framework by which we can focus our efforts and track our progress towards a sustainable future for farmers and the planet.”
The detailed ambitions in the Charter include a commitment by ECOM to train 100% of farmers within its origin-sourced supply chain, identified as at high risk of negative impacts of climate change, in climate-smart agriculture by the end of 2025. Climate-smart techniques are catered to farmers’ specific needs, and can include training on good soil management, pest control and shade management. To help diversify income and enhance climate resilience, the Charter also sets a goal to establish agroforestry models – farming systems to help enhance forest cover, sequester carbon, and improve biodiversity and soil health – and monitoring systems in 100% of ECOM’s origin-sourced supply chains by the end of 2023.
The Charter commits ECOM to achieve Net Zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2050 following the Science Based Targets Initiative. At the farm level, ECOM distributed over 7 million multipurpose trees (including fruit and timber trees) in 2021, with the support of clients, helping to combat deforestation as well as diversify income for farmers and contribute to poverty reduction.
Guus de Gruiter, Deputy CEO of Cocoa at ECOM, said: “The Smarter Cocoa Charter is the first phase in our ambition to build a smarter future for cocoa. As we take the next steps in our journey, our focus will be on continually improving sustainability performance throughout our beans, products and processing operations, and elevating the position of sustainability across our business.”
The Charter and Cocoa Sustainability Report also demonstrate ECOM’s efforts to improve farmer livelihoods. The company implemented the Social Progress Index and Gender Equity Index in 2021 to assess social health and gender disparities within its cocoa farming supply chain. The Gender Equity Index has been successfully piloted in Ghana and Peru to support the company to strategically close the gender equity gaps and empower women, with a goal to roll this out across ECOM’s origin-sourced supply chain by the end of 2025.