Mondelēz commits additional $600 million to Cocoa Life program

Mondelēz International has on Wednesday announced the next phase of its Cocoa Life program, backed by an additional $600 million (£517.6m) through 2030, for a total $1 billion investment since the start of the program.

The latest phase of the program aims to increase cocoa volume at scale and work with about 300,000 farmers by 2030.

“As one of the world’s leading snacking companies, it is a priority to continue making our most important ingredients, such as cocoa, right, and Cocoa Life sits at the heart of this strategy,” said Dirk Van de Put, chairman and chief executive.

“While we are excited about the promise of our investments, we are calling for more sector-wide effort and actions to drive greater impact, including new private-public partnerships, as we aim to catalyze ground-breaking collaboration to help move cocoa forward together.”

Mondelēz introduced Cocoa Life in 2012 to secure supply of more sustainable cocoa and establish an integrated approach striving to tackle the root causes of systemic issues in cocoa including farm productivity, farmer livelihoods, community development, and helping combat child labor and deforestation, together in one program.

Ten years on, the program has reached critical scale with over 200,000 farmers in the program and $400 million has been invested by the end of 2022. Mondelēz said key lessons from the past ten years will help it accelerate the program and go further and faster.

By 2030, Cocoa Life aims to increase the number of farming households reaching a living income, enhance child protection systems and access to quality education in Cocoa Life communities, and seek no deforestation on Cocoa Life farms globally. Program focus areas will include:

“While progress and impact have been made, cocoa farmers and their communities are still facing big challenges,” said Christine Montenegro McGrath, senior vice president and chief impact and sustainability officer, Mondelēz International.

“We are passionate about helping to drive lasting change across the whole cocoa sector and are doubling down on Cocoa Life’s integrated approach because we know only a sector-wide long-term strategy, supported by action by all industry players, producing and consuming governments, and civil society will lead to lasting impact.”