Good idea: a competition between chocolate and coffee

Great news from the purple Alpine meadow of Milka chocolate. The favorite of the Dutch chocolate eaters is switching to sustainably grown cocoa. However, this news is only really tender on the inside.

Milka received the Cacao Life logo, a sustainability program from parent company Mondelez. Cacao Life promises to address deforestation, to support farmers in the fight against climate change and to train them to keep their finances in order.

Floating cocoa farmers in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, India, and Brazil are on a purple…no, pink cloud?

Not when you read the Cocoa barometer. According to this report, all those sustainable and honest promises made by chocolate companies from the past 10 years have not yielded nearly enough progress. Child labor and deforestation are still pressing issues. A female farmer in the Ivory Coast earns barely a third of what she should to make a decent living.

Even if the buds are perfect, the farmer still does not deserve a living income.

Farmers are helped to increase their harvest, grow other crops and to use optimal techniques. “Even if the buds are perfect, the farmer still does not deserve a living income,” said Peter Maxhelaar’s director Peter d’Angremondt during the meeting ‘Honestly about Chocolate.’

How can we solve this? The authors of the Cocoa Barometer advise companies to turn their promises into concrete goals. In management jargon this means that the net income of farmers becomes a KPI or a ‘Key Performance Indicator,’ a clear number against which progress is tested. However, this requires these companies to first have the courage to be transparent with their data.

Hopefully a competitive element will motivate the multinationals to take an extra big step forward.

There are many similarities between chocolate and coffee. In short: millions of farmers around the world are living near the poverty line, and a few multinationals together with governments and the support of billions of fans of the products, have the power to change the system. I am looking forward to the soon-to-be released Coffee Barometer. What is more poverty free: coffee or chocolate? To make this fun and add a little productive competition, we’ve made it into a match. Hopefully a competitive element will motivate the multinationals to take an extra big step forward. I’ve already bought my ticket for that match. It’s no problem if it becomes a blood-curdling finale. I’ll just eat away the excitement with a big piece of Rokbar.

That is a new chocolate bar made entirely by women. Because, let’s not forget that there are also many great initiatives, both in chocolate and in coffee.

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