Forever Chocolate in Indonesia

BARRY Calleabaut has launched Forever Chocolate, a series of five pilot programmes to test theories of change that will push sustainable farming in cocoa origin countries. The first one will be conducted in Indonesia, and the next in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Brazil.

Through the pilots, the company aims to increase the income of cocoa farmers, eradicate child labour, and become carbon positive. Oliver von Hagen is in charge of the pilots. In an interview with Barry Callebaut’s Taryn Ridley, he said the cocoa industry is beset by low productivity on farms, poor agricultural practices, low nutrient soil and ageing trees. These are compounded by problems brought about by climate change and deforestation in African countries.

Mr von Hagen said the first part of the pilot will be for data collection, identifying critical impact factors, and trying out the tools and approaches. The target is to have all the pilots running this year, and provide results by the end of the year.

The company has partnered with the Wageningen University & Research for the baseline and analytical framework.

In Indonesia, the programme will be handled by Ani Setiyonimgrum, Sustainability Business Development Manager and Rudyanto Hady, Sourcing Sustainability Manager at Barry Callebaut.

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