Barry Callebaut strengthens commitment to transparency with 100% certified or verified cocoa and ingredients target by 2030

Forever Chocolate: our targets for 2025 and beyond

(IN BRIEF) Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading chocolate and cocoa products manufacturer, has announced a set of refined sustainability targets for its Forever Chocolate plan. The company aims to make sustainable chocolate the norm, with targets to achieve by 2030 and beyond. The plan is based on four key pillars: Prosperous Farmers, Human Rights, Thriving Nature and Sustainable Ingredients. By 2030, the company aims to have 100% of its cocoa and ingredients in all products certified or verified, traceable to farm level. Barry Callebaut has already made progress towards its goals, having lifted nearly 215,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty, established systems to prevent child labor and reduced carbon intensity by over 18%.

(PRESS RELEASE) ZURICH, 10-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Barry Callebaut Group (SWX: BARN), Switzerland-based cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer, has presented a new set of sharpened targets for Forever Chocolate, its plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm. The targets extend beyond 2025 and are unique in the cocoa and chocolate industry in terms of their ambition. The company is committed to driving long-term systemic change for a sustainable cocoa supply chain with the support of its customers and to the benefit of all stakeholders. However, for Forever Chocolate to become a reality, public intervention is required to drive structural change beyond Barry Callebaut’s direct supply chain. An enabling policy environment and government action in origin countries is essential to address the issue of traceability, rural infrastructure development and proper enforcement of national policies and legislation.

Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate plan focuses on four key pillars to address material challenges in the cocoa and chocolate supply chain:

1. Prosperous Farmers – Supporting Cocoa Farmers
   Barry Callebaut aims to lift over 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty by 2025 and plans to mobilize public and private stakeholders to implement a transformative cocoa farming model generating living income by 2030. To achieve this, the company plans to shift its focus from training to providing input support such as subsidized soil inputs, planting material, financial support for third-party labor services, and additional premiums. Improving the quality yield per hectare is vital to lift smallholder cocoa farmers out of poverty and put them on a trajectory towards a living income.
2. Human Rights – Eradicating Child Labor
   Barry Callebaut is committed to eradicating child labor from its supply chain and plans to cover the entire supply chain with Human Rights Due Diligence by 2025. By 2030, all farming communities Barry Callebaut sources from will be empowered to protect human rights. To achieve this, the company will need private and public intervention to establish the enabling infrastructure, including Child Protection Committees at cocoa farmer community level and ensuring access to quality education.
3. Thriving Nature – Fighting Climate Change
   To align with the Paris Climate Agreement’s emission reduction trajectory, Barry Callebaut aims to focus on insetting CO2 through agroforestry, moving away from offsetting. By 2030, the company plans to have decarbonized its footprint in line with global efforts to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees and aims to become a net-zero company by 2050. The Group also aims to be forest positive by 2025.
4. Sustainable Ingredients – Ensuring Transparency
   By 2030, Barry Callebaut aims to have all of its products containing 100% certified or verified cocoa and ingredients traceable to farm level. To achieve this, the company has been working with suppliers and industry programs to define and implement sustainability standards for all the ingredients it sources, including dairy, palm oil, coconut, and nuts. Establishing industry-wide sustainability standards and programs is crucial for the sustainable sourcing of raw materials, and certification is only the starting point.

“Our Forever Chocolate targets are dynamic by design. The requirements of a sustainable cocoa and chocolate supply chain are constantly evolving and transforming. Plus, since the start of Forever Chocolate, we continuously generated new insights through data analysis and engagement with experts. We therefore wanted to add fresh ambition to our Forever Chocolate plan with more focus on impact on the ground beyond compliance, on supporting and empowering beyond training, and on a systemic approach beyond individual intervention. This is why we have sharpened our existing Forever Chocolate targets and added additional targets extending our impact beyond 2025.

“It is clear that we cannot reach these targets on our own. For Forever Chocolate to become a reality, we need public intervention to drive structural change beyond our direct supply chain,” said Steven Retzlaff, President Global Cocoa.

Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate plan, launched in 2016 to make sustainable chocolate the norm, has had a tangible impact on the ground, and its efforts have been recognized externally by leading ESG ratings¹. Some key achievements² in the past six years include:

1. Prosperous Farmers: Almost 215,000 cocoa farmers were lifted out of poverty, and the company aims to lift over 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty by 2025. Input support such as subsidized soil inputs, planting material, financial support for third-party labor services, and additional premiums have been provided to smallholder cocoa farmers to improve their quality yield per hectare and generate living income.
2. Zero Child Labor: 81% of farmer groups Barry Callebaut directly sources from have systems in place to prevent, monitor, and remediate child labor. The company aims to eradicate child labor from its supply chain by 2025 and establish empowering infrastructure to protect human rights by 2030.
3. Thriving Nature: The overall carbon intensity per tonne of product has been reduced by more than 18% since 2016, and traceability has been established for almost 80% of farms in Barry Callebaut’s direct supply chain. The company plans to have decarbonized its footprint in line with global efforts to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees by 2030 and become a net-zero company by 2050.
4. Sustainable Ingredients: One out of every two products sold contains 100% sustainable chocolate or cocoa, and by 2030, Barry Callebaut aims to have all its products containing 100% certified or verified cocoa and ingredients traceable to farm level.

Barry Callebaut plans to continue collaborating with the Cocoa Horizons foundation to implement its sustainability activities in the cocoa supply chain. Over CHF 122 million in funds have been generated since 2016, and these funds are invested in activities that help farmers improve their productivity and income, fight against child labor and deforestation, and become net zero. The company’s efforts have been driven by strong demand from customers who are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainable sourcing.

_{¹In September 2022, Sustainalytics ranked Barry Callebaut as #1 out of 584 companies in the ‘Food Products’ category. This is the fourth consecutive year that Barry Callebaut has been recognized as a leader in the management of ESG risks in its supply chain, not only in the cocoa and chocolate sector, but also in the broader food and beverage industry. In December 2022, Barry Callebaut was recognized for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on forests by the global environmental non-profit organization CDP for the second year in a row. Barry Callebaut is one of only 25 high-performing companies that achieved an ‘A’ rating, out of nearly 15,000 companies.
²Since 2016, Barry Callebaut reported on an annual basis on the progress of its time bound, measurable targets, which are verified by a third-party auditor. The sixth Forever Chocolate progress report can be found here.}

About Barry Callebaut Group:

With annual sales of about CHF 8.1 billion in fiscal year 2021/22, the Zurich- based Barry Callebaut Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products – from sourcing and processing cocoa beans to producing the finest chocolates, including chocolate fillings, decorations and compounds. The Group runs more than 65 production facilities worldwide and employs a diverse and dedicated global workforce of more than 13,000 people.

The Barry Callebaut Group serves the entire food industry, from industrial food manufacturers to artisanal and professional users of chocolate, such as chocolatiers, pastry chefs, bakers, hotels, restaurants or caterers. The global brands catering to the specific needs of these Gourmet customers are Callebaut^® and Cacao Barry^®, Carma^® and the decorations specialist Mona Lisa^®.

The Barry Callebaut Group is committed to make sustainable chocolate the norm to help ensure future supplies of cocoa and improve farmer livelihoods. It supports the Cocoa Horizons Foundation in its goal to shape a sustainable cocoa and chocolate future.

Media contacts:

Frank Keidel
Head of Media Relations
+41 76 399 69 06​

Christine Ammann
External Affairs Manager

SOURCE: Barry Callebaut