Palm Oil
Cocoa
Sugar
Cane
Securing the Future for Cocoa
and Cocoa Farming Families
Mars’ sourcing needs meets its principles
in the business case for certification
In 2009, Mars made a public commitment that its
entire cocoa supply would be produced in a sustainable
manner by 2020. The reason for the commitment was
rooted in the five principles that have long guided
its business. Mars’ Mutuality principle states that
“A mutual benefit is a shared benefit; a shared benefit
will endure.”
Challenge: Without a sustainable, long-term
supply of cocoa, there may be no future Mars
chocolate business. Without improvements to
cocoa farming, there may be no prosperous
future for farmers and their families.
Alastair Child, Cocoa Sustainability Director, Mars Global
Chocolate, explains: “Our values and deep concern
about the lives of cocoa farming families combined
with the commercial business case of supply security
compelled us to act. We are a family business and what
keeps us awake at night is what future cocoa offers both
to cocoa farmers and Mars associates (employees).”
supply chain. We realised the opportunity of working
with certification standards and cocoa supply chain
companies. Certification provides an audited and
checked system whereby Mars can invest through its
suppliers in realising meaningful impact with farmers.”
Edward Millard, Director of Strategic Partnerships
at Rainforest Alliance recalls the impact of Mars’
commitment in 2009. “The market is the biggest driver
of change so when Mars, as a major buyer of cocoa,
made a commitment on April 10, 2009 to procure 100%
of its cocoa in a sustainable manner and partnered with
Rainforest Alliance as a key certification partner, the
whole supply chain responded. That one commitment
galvanised demand for Rainforest Alliance certified
cocoa in a way that we hadn’t previously seen.”
Alastair Child states: “It was a big call to commit to
100% sustainably produced cocoa in 2009. There
is no way you can have all the facts at the time.
We made that call because there was a strong
business case and it felt like the right thing to do.”
Why choose certification?
Alastair Child points out: “The challenge was that we
knew what we needed to do with farmers but didn’t
know how to do it at scale. The only network that
reaches every cocoa farmer in the world was the
© Mars
The company held a deep seated fear that cocoa
production is not sustainable. Cocoa farming practices
have not been invested in and a change was needed
towards modern sustainable practices driving higher
yields and incomes for farmers. The desire of the Mars
family to ensure that the company can be handed
on to the next generation was a poignant parallel
to the need for cocoa farmers to pass a viable farm
on to the next generation. Mars knew it needed to
make a serious supply chain commitment that would
involve training and incentives to make cocoa an
attractive livelihood choice for professional farmers.
ISEAL member Rainforest Alliance accepted the
company’s challenge to bring enough farms to the
required standard so that 100% of Mars supply
would be certified as sustainable by 2020.
“ We were led by both the head the commercial business case - and
the heart - our principles. Mars’
sustainable cocoa sourcing effort is
rooted in a belief in putting farmers
first. We are laser focused on
the cocoa farmer as our primary
stakeholder above all else. ”
Mars’ latest commitment to certified cocoa was revealed
on February 20, 2015 when Mars Chocolate UK and The
Fairtrade Foundation announced that they are extending
their global cocoa partnership with a commitment to
source Fairtrade certified cocoa for all MARS® Bars in
the UK and Ireland by Autumn 2015. Mars is the first UK
company to announce a commitment under the new
Fairtrade Cocoa Sourcing Programme which follows the
Fairtrade certification of Maltesers in the UK in 2011.
Harriet Lamb, Chief Executive of ISEAL member Fairtrade
International explains: “With their growing commitment
to Fairtrade, Mars is showing their belief in the smallscale farmers they work with. We see it repeatedly
at Fairtrade – when farmers are able to chart their
own direction, they not only do what’s good for their
communities and the environment, but also what’s
good for their business partners. According to our
recent monitoring and impact report, Fairtrade certified
producer organisations elected to invest more than
40 percent of their (Fairtrade) Premium in productivity
and quality improvements on the farm. This benefits
the entire supply chain and provides that key for
building trust.”
Certification benefits the whole industry
Child says Mars considers the whole industry. “We are
focused beyond just the Mars supply chain. Success
for us is transforming the entire global cocoa industry.
When you work with certification it not only helps your
own supply but is a means of improving the industry as
a whole. We believe ‘all ships rise and fall with the same
tide’ in cocoa, therefore we aim to drive change beyond
just the Mars supply of cocoa to improve the long term
availability of cocoa for all, and improve the lives of all
cocoa farming families, not just those supplying Mars.”
Millard agrees that securing a sustainable supply of
cocoa is a major driver for Mars. “We’ve seen how
Mars believes in and acts for the future of the cocoa
industry. It is very focused on being an industry leader,
for example as a champion of World Cocoa Foundation’s
Cocoa Action initiative. Thinking of the supply chain as
a whole, Mars has shared its research for the benefit of
the future of cocoa, for example when it mapped the
cocoa genome and shared this information in the
public domain.”
Extra push on certification
Mars has partnership agreements with ISEAL
members UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance and
Fairtrade International and in each case has
insisted on a commitment on productivity.
Child reveals: “In making these partnership
agreements we said we need a commitment from
you on productivity. We looked for the mutuality
in working with each certifier. For example, we
found the mutuality with Rainforest Alliance in the
realisation that producing more cocoa from less land
was good for the environment. Whilst the certifiers
are making great progress, we are impatient and
ambitious and are working to achieve a complete
transformation in the impact we have with farmers.”
Millard welcomes the challenge on certification from
Mars. “Mars has always had its eye on the bigger picture
of what sustainability stands for. In that respect, it is
well aligned with our mission and values. Mars has
been very attentive to making sure that certification
is efficient and delivers the outcomes that it purports
to. The company has taken tangible steps to challenge
the integrity of the systems which we welcome as it
helps us ensure we are delivering positive impact.”
Daan de Vries, Markets Director at UTZ Certified said:
“The UTZ Cocoa Program was co-founded by Mars
in 2007. It was a sector partnership that also brought
together Nestlé, Cargill, Ecom, Ahold, Heinz Benelux
with NGOs Solidaridad, Oxfam-Novib, WWF International
and UTZ itself. Mars was very active throughout, from
the first learning trip to the technical working groups
and local consultations. I got a call in 2009 that they
wanted to go 100% certified by 2020 and was very
excited. The move has been a game changer, forcing all
intermediaries to get involved and challenging others in
the industry on their ambition levels. Mars continues to
be a close partner with an exceptional commitment to
sustainability, both of the company and of the sector.”
Future plans
Mars’ plans for the future include maintaining the
commitment for 100% of cocoa used to be produced
sustainably with the aim of sustainable production
becoming mainstream across the cocoa industry. Its
programmes aim for increases of yields, farmer incomes
and children in school. Alastair Child concludes:
“For us, certification offers something unique,
an opportunity to scale across the industry and
drive change beyond the Mars supply chain. This
supports our commercial need to secure a long
term supply of cocoa but at the same time leads
to improved income and better quality of life for
farmers, their families and their communities.”
www.isealalliance.org