INTHEBLACK April 2025 - Magazine - Page 28
M E MFBEEAT
R UP R OE F I L E
It ranks the policies
and practices of chocolate traders,
manufacturers, brands and retailers
on key criteria, including traceability
and transparency, living income, child
labour, climate change and deforestation,
agroforestry and pesticide use.
DOING IT DIFFERENTLY
Dutch disruptor brand Tony’s Chocolonely
was called out for “special achievement”
in 2024’s scorecard. The company was formed
20 years ago by journalists who uncovered
widespread forced and child labour abuses
in the cocoa industry, and determined
the most effective way to change the industry
was to join it.
Tony’s Chocolonely takes a bold approach
to pursuing its mission to end exploitation,
including symbolism — its chocolate bars
are moulded into irregular pieces to highlight
the industry’s unfair distribution of profits.
Several transformative initiatives are
delivering material changes.
One of these is Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles,
an ethical sourcing model for cocoa beans that
tracks beans through the supply chain and,
importantly, makes long-term commitments
to pay farmers a fair price. Working with
professional farming cooperatives and ensuring
training for future productivity is key.
The company now provides income
stability to around 20,000 farmers, reports
Frits Snel, country manager for the Benelux
region in Europe and beyond, and that
number is set to grow to around 34,000
next year.
“The child labour prevalence rate at
long-term partner cooperatives is a little below
28 INTHEBLACK April 2025
four per cent, much
lower than the industry average of around
50 per cent,” Snel says.
To make a real difference, the company
realised it needed to put a higher volume
of beans through its sourcing model.
In 2019, it launched Tony’s Open Chain,
a collaboration platform where other industry
players can join the mission and source cocoa
beans according to Tony’s Principles.
“Part of our roadmap involves inspiring
the industry to join our mission,” Snel says.
Among its “mission allies” are ice-cream
makers Ben & Jerry’s, supermarket chains
Waitrose and ALDI, and some big Dutch
and Belgian retailers.
Despite challenging economic times
industry-wide, Tony’s Chocolonely is
“standing by cocoa farmers and paying them
the living income reference price long-term,
to provide them income security,” Snel says.
CHANGING TASTES
An increase in consumer interest in
the provenance of foods is a catalyst for
improving environmental and social impact
in the chocolate industry, with chocolate
lovers’ appetites for “single-origin” or
“bean-to-bar” varieties on the rise.
The movement, estimated to represent
5–10 per cent of global chocolate sales,
is driving supply chain transparency as
makers directly source beans from farmers,
and factor in sustainable farming practices.
This “premiumisation” of chocolate
is sustaining a nascent cocoa industry
in Australia.
