Chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut has partnered with Dutch organisations Tony’s Chocolonely and Albert Heijn to set a new industry standard for sourcing cocoa.
The standard aims to put more pressure on the wider chocolate industry to drive structural chain to work towards a more equally divided cocoa chain. This means ending child labour and modern slavery.
Tony’s Chocolonely has been calling on companies to follow their example for cocoa sourcing based on direct relations with cocoa cooperatives, traceable cocoa and a living income for cocoa farmers.
The company shares full details of its transparent supply chain under Tony’s Open Chain – an open-source platform where chocolate companies can access all the expertise needed to eliminate social issues from their own supply chain.
The platform includes tools such as Tony’s Beantracker and the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System that has been implemented at all Tony’s partner cooperatives.
The Netherlands’ biggest retailer Albert Heijn is the first company to sign up for Tony’s Open Chain, while Barry Callebaut has enabled the partnership with its expertise in processing the segregated cocoa to chocolate.
“This is a giant step for the chocolate industry, and an important move towards making sustainable chocolate the industry standard by 2025,” says Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to collaborate with both the biggest retailer in the Netherlands and a company as committed to its slave-free mission as Tony’s Chocolonely, and we look forward to expanding this success story through our logistical expertise.”
