Mondelēz International, leader in chocolate, candy, coffee, and powdered beverages, has unveiled “Cocoa Life” – the company’s largest cocoa sustainability effort to date. It will invest $400 million over the next ten years to improve the living conditions of more 200,000 cocoa farmers and about one million people in cocoa farming communities. Cocoa Life will also bring a $100 million new investment to Côte d’Ivoire - the world’s largest cocoa producing country - to help 75,000 farmers double their productivity.
Cocoa Life’s aims to work with partners in four key ways:
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Farming: helping farmers improve their yields and livelihoods to earn larger incomes.
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Community: empowering cocoa farming families to create the kind of communities they and their children want to live in, while promoting gender equality.
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Youth: working towards eliminating child labor by helping communities tackle its root causes. Making cocoa farming a more attractive profession for the next generation.
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Environment: protecting the landscapes in which cocoa is grown to maintain eco-systems and provide viable environments and farming land for future generations.
The initiative will work with governments, civil society, and suppliers to improve the cocoa supply chain. Mondelēz is already working with the United Nations Development Program, the World Wildlife Fund and Anti-Slavery International to develop principles for success and ways to measure progress.
Cocoa Life builds on the company's previous commitments, including its goal to sustainably source 100% of its European coffee by 2015 and its “Coffee Made Happy” initiative to invest at least $200 million to empower one million coffee farming entrepreneurs by 2020.
Visit www.mondelezinternational.com for more information.