100% sustainably sourced cocoa
Learn about our commitment to sustainable cocoa farming practices.
To make great chocolate, you need great cocoa.
But life can be challenging where cocoa is grown.
That’s why we developed the Nestlé Cocoa Plan:
better farming, better lives – and better cocoa.
Since 2009, the Nestlé Cocoa Plan has positively impacted cocoa-farming families across our three pillars; Better Farming, Better Lives, Better Cocoa. In 2023, we made significant progress toward our goal, welcoming more than 20 000 new farmers – bringing the total to 179,339 – who received training and resources to help them improve yields and livelihoods as part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. Here are some of the specific activities we undertook and the progress we have made from our latest report:
Providing training and resources to help farmers improve yields and livelihoods.
- 1,286,240 forest and fruit trees distributed to cocoa farmers
- 19,635 hectares pruned as part of the income accelerator program
Improving social conditions, promoting women's empowerment to improve gender equality and household revenues, and enabling access to quality education.
- 108,810 households covered by our Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) to prevent and address child labor risks
- 178,553 children covered by our CLMRS to prevent and address child labor risks
- 793 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) groups
Building a more transparent and traceable supply chain, continuing to develop certification and verification, and promoting forest positive actions towards better quality cocoa.
- 179,399 farmers in the Nestlé Cocoa Plan
- 100% certified cocoa since 2015 at Nestlé Confectionery in the UK & Ireland
- We made notable progress towards our Forest Positive strategy, including our drive to achieve deforestation-free cocoa by 2025. Though overviewed in our Annual Progress Report, on this specific point more detailed information is available in our Towards Forest Positive Cocoa Progress Report 2024 (link: 2024-NCP-Cocoa-Forest-Positive-Report.pdf (nestlecocoaplan.com) )
More detailed information can be found here.
Proudly Rainforest Alliance Certified
Since 2016, all of the cocoa we’ve sourced for the Aero chocolate you enjoy here in the UK & Ireland has been certified which means it is being grown more sustainably.
We are proud of our work with the Rainforest Alliance that goes beyond certification of cocoa beans into other impact areas. Read more about this on the Rainforest Alliance’s website.
The Income Accelerator Programme
With an innovative family-centred approach, the income accelerator programme is aiming to close the living income gap and reduce child labour risks by encouraging changes in behaviour and rewarding positive practices – both within the home and on the farm. The programme rewards cocoa-farming families for practices that benefit the environment and local community.
Incentivising positive practices
A cash incentive is paid to cocoa-farming households for certain activities to accelerate change. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa-farming families to engage in practices in four areas:
School enrolment
Good agricultural practices
Agroforestry activities
Diversified incomes
Mobile money cash transfers are distributed equally between the farmer and spouse to encourage gender equality, share financial responsibilities, and build a more resilient household.
To learn more about the income accelerator programme, and read our latest progress report, please click here The Income Accelerator Program | The Nestle Cocoa Plan
Our Partners
In fact, the Rainforest Alliance is not the only organisation we work with on our journey to make cocoa more sustainable.
To make real and lasting change requires collaboration. A number of organisations have come together to deliver the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. Find out more by clicking on the partner links below.
A cash incentive will be paid to the cocoa-farming households for certain activities to accelerate change. This new plan also includes initiatives to transform the global sourcing of cocoa to achieve full traceability and segregation of cocoa products.
It offers a novel approach to help farmers and their families steadily and sustainably build economic stability. It rewards cocoa-farming families not only for the quantity and quality of cocoa beans they produce but also for the benefits they provide to the environment and local communities.
Building on the learnings of an initial pilot in 2020 with 1,000 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, a large-scale test with 10,000 families started in 2022. We will assess the results of the test phase and adapt where necessary, before aiming to reach all cocoa-farming families in Nestlé’s global cocoa supply chain by 2030.
Feedback and input from farmers and farmer cooperatives, as well as ongoing data collection and evaluation by third parties, will be used to inform, modify and improve the programme as it scales up to more communities. To learn more about the income accelerator programme, click here.
To learn more about the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, visit www.nestlecocoaplan.com
