Ferrero, an Italian multinational manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products and the second biggest chocolate producer and confectionery company in the world, has offered a critical update on its commitment and progress on the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) projects designed to tackle deforestation, working alongside the governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana, as well as the wider sector, for its third annual report.

The initiative, which was originally established in 2017 between 35 major sector businesses, including Mars, Mondelez, Ferrero, Hershey, Cargill and Barry Callebaut, Olam, Lindt & Sprüngli Group, Nestlé, General Mills, Cémoi and Puratos, has strived to work with regional authorities and civil organizations to deliver a reduction of environmental impacts and help preserve valuable ecosystems in West Africa.

However, as the Confectionery Production has noted, while the projects had identified vital measures to help improve deforestation linked to the cocoa trade, there remain significant issues, as shown by satellite-mapped studies by Mighty Earth that pointed to the fact that critical forested areas are still being lost in the region at a considerable rate, despite the efforts of the industry.

Ferrero calls on collaboration in the fight against deforestation

As Ferrero noted, the context of the Covid-19 global pandemic, 2020-21, presented additional challenges for its cocoa farmers and suppliers. This unprecedented situation required increased efforts to address these challenges, but specific projects also surpassed goals, in some cases doubling original targets set for 2022.

“As one of the founding members of the Cocoa and Forest Initiative, Ferrero is committed to contributing to ending deforestation and forest degradation in the cocoa sector while championing socially and environmentally sustainable practices in our cocoa supply chain,” said Marco Gonçalves, Chief Procurement & Hazelnut Company Officer at Ferrero.

In his opening address for its report, he added: “We’re proud of the achievements we made as Ferrero through our programme, but at the same time, we acknowledge that to reach meaningful scale and impact, a true sector-wide approach is imperative. With that in mind, we welcomed the progress made in 2020-21 on collaborative action between companies, particularly in collective farm datasets, and the activities by and with the origin governments, for example, the steps made in developing National Traceability Systems.

“As we enter the fourth year of the Cocoa and Forest Initiative, we continue our journey and learn from best practices to further strengthen our programme and continue to support and promote sector-wide initiatives,” he noted.

Ferrero’s past achievements

Notably, Ferrero said that fundamental to driving positive change is the visibility of the supply chain. In 2020-21, the company continued to achieve a high level of traceability from farm to first purchase point in Ivory Coast and Ghana for the cocoa volumes sourced. With 346,000 hectares covered with deforestation risk assessments, Ferrero doubled its initial target for 2022.

Additionally, it pointed out that in 2020-21 important steps were also made on forest restoration through additional investments. Over 500,000 non-cocoa trees were distributed for off-farm planting, helping restore 3,500 ha of the forest area of 200 ha in classified forests. When combined with multi-purpose trees for on-farm planting, Ferrero has distributed 2 million trees in 2020-21 alone, and 3 million trees since the start of our CFI action. Additional achievements from 2020-to 21 include 69,000 cocoa farmers adopting agroforestry practices on their land, covering 111,000 ha, and over 10,000 farmers involved in Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) initiatives. The PES initiative provides farmers with valuable resources and incentives such as financial payments, training, fertilizers, and tools for their environmental protection and restoration work.

Furthermore, over 21,000 were supported with Income Generating Activities, including soap making, beekeeping, chicken farming, and 890 active Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) groups, involving 27,000 members, mainly women. These groups are self-managed groups of community members who meet regularly to save their money in a safe space and access small loans.