Mars Inc, and the Rainforest Alliance have unwrapped ambitious new goals in their ongoing campaign to help cocoa farmers get on the path towards sustainability.
The global company and the NGO, both leaders in sustainable tropical agriculture, agreed to redouble efforts to help thousands of farmers meet holistic social and environmental standards so that their farms could earn Rainforest Alliance certification.
Mars aims to buy enough certified cocoa so that the Galaxy chocolate bar can bear the Rainforest Alliance Certified green seal of approval by early 2010. The company has also committed to getting its entire cocoa supply certified as sustainably produced by 2020.
The Rainforest Alliance accepted the company’s challenge to bring enough farms up to code so that 100,000 tonnes of Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa would be available each year by 2020. The move is an unprecedented milestone for the cocoa industry, farmers and chocolate lovers.
