ofi drives climate action in global cocoa supply chain

olam food ingredients says it substantially advanced towards climate goals stated in its Cocoa Compass sustainability report 2020/21 – the year of COP26.

The global leader in naturally good food and beverage ingredients added that to achieve the structural change required to have an impact at scale, the report makes clear that work on the ground in cocoa communities should be supported by international collaboration and regulation.

In the report, olam food ingredients (ofi) shares its sustainability progress across its cocoa supply chain, achieved in collaboration with customers and partners, and benchmarked against three years of impact data.

From the Brazilian Amazon to the landscapes of Côte d’Ivoire, the company said it has taken further steps to protect and restore forests: it distributed 1.75m trees to farmers (a 356% increase since 2017/18) and enhanced the accuracy of its deforestation monitoring, having polygon mapped two-thirds of its sustainability programs.

ofi also invested to reduce its CO₂ emissions per metric ton of product output from its cocoa processing facilities, down by 19% since 2018, by installing circular biomass boilers fueled by waste cocoa shells and switching to green electricity. The boiler at the Koog aan de Zaan facility in the Netherlands, where it produces its premium cocoa ingredient brand, deZaan, will now allow ofi to target a further 50% cut in natural gas usage, which will lead to a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions.

Gerard A. Manley, CEO of ofi’s cocoa platform and chief sustainability officer of ofi, said: “We need to keep the 1.5 degrees climate ambition alive. That means driving climate action at every stage of our supply chain, from plant to palate, supporting customers on their own decarbonisation journeys, and reassuring consumers that their favorite chocolate bar, baked good, or ice cream is having a positive impact on the cocoa communities and landscapes it came from.”

The report includes action to eliminate child labour and raise farmer incomes. Child labour monitoring is in place across all managed sustainability programs, while the company’s digital CLMRS app, a part of the Olam Farmers Information System (OFIS) – already used across Central & West Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia – was extended to Papua New Guinea. ofi is also establishing an estimate of cocoa farmer incomes across sourcing countries to better understand and close living income gaps.

All cocoa data collected by ofi can feed directly into AtSource, its sustainability insights platform, giving customers full visibility of their cocoa’s environmental and social impact, including traceability for all of ofi’s directly sourced cocoa.

Felipe Faria, LATAM regional manager at Partnerships for Forests (P4F), a program funded by the UK government via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, added: “Since 2018, we have been working with ofi and other partners to restore areas of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. By successfully creating a one-stop shop for cocoa farmers to access technical assistance, financial credit, and a market to sell their cocoa, we have already brought over 17,000 hectares of land under sustainable management. ofi has played a leading role at every step, particularly around testing new ideas and solutions to accelerate the project’s progress.”

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