Tony’s reports positive impact on the cocoa sector

January 9, 2023

Having measured a decade of impact on the cocoa sector, Tony’s Chocolonely has released insights into the impacts of their initiatives, marking the 10th anniversary of their FAIR report. Insights shared by the company reflect an overall positive impact they have had on the sector.

Since 2017, the company has adopted the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System, which they say has been impactful in driving child labour from 50% to under 5%. In addition, they report that the longer time they spend working with partner co-ops and farmers, the lower the rate of child labour. As a result of partner co-ops, the figure of children in child labour was 4.4% in the last year, while Tony’s say as the result of 2 newer partner co-ops, the percentage of children in child labour was 52.8%.

The total number of cocoa beans – which Tony’s say is 100% traceable – comes to 14,002 metric tonnes, and is directly linked to the company’s impact. As a result of sourcing traceable cocoa beans, 14,763 cocoa farmers were positively impacted, a marked increase of 5833 compared with the year before. EU€8,233,158 – 6.2% of the company’s total revenue – was invested into impact initiatives.

The company was involved in a number of partnerships with other chocolate companies, who source chocolates using the company’s 5 Sourcing Principles. Among them, Ben & Jerry’s, The Flower Farm and PLUS Supermarkets all joined Tony’s Open Chain Initiative. This is on top of Albert Heijn, ALDI, Jokolade and Vly Foods.

In spite of this, the company says their Open Chain initiative only reaches 0.5% of the West African cocoa market – and so needs more work. It says the solution to this is to source more traceable beans at a higher price, to ensure cocoa farmers are paid a fair wage.

Stay up-to-date on the latest industry news and developments in our magazine.