A group of WCF member companies signed a joint agreement with the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana as part of an unprecedented strategy to accelerate actions to make cocoa farming in the country sustainable. The plan, known as CocoaAction, calls for building a rejuvenated and economically viable cocoa sector through increased cooperation between industry members and the governments. CocoaAction will later be extended to other cocoa-producing countries and is open to participation by others in the public and private sectors that support sustainability in the cocoa sector.

Emphasis will be placed on providing cocoa farmers with a combination of productivity enhancements and community development interventions. These efforts are expected to reach no fewer than 200,000 Ivorian farmers and 100,000 Ghanaian farmers and the communities where they live by 2020. The strategy will be coordinated by WCF.

“This agreement represents one of the most significant steps the sector is taking to make cocoa sustainable,” says Barry Parkin, WCF’s newly-appointed chairman and chief sustainability officer at Mars, Incorporated. “This alignment of objectives, commitment of resources, and sharing of best practices is the type of transformative initiative that will really help farmers become more productive and secure the future of cocoa. While it represents a new way for the industry to work with origin countries, it also builds on the strong existing relationships with them. We are honored and proud to move these relationships to a significant next step.”

CocoaAction was carefully and voluntarily developed by the companies in cooperation with the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s top cocoa-producing countries. The two countries provide about 55 percent of the world’s current cocoa supply.

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