Sustainable and responsible cocoa sourcing
Overview
Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa
Vietnam
Indonesia
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil is Latin America’s largest producer of cocoa. As one of the country’s leading cocoa processors we are supporting local cocoa farmers, and we are also supporting a number of programs in the local communities where we operate in partnership with local organizations, and with the voluntary support from our employees.
Economic development for cocoa producers and their families – to help rural workers in Brazil’s central coast whose livelihoods had been interrupted due to a downturn in cocoa bean production, Cargill is supporting a CARE Brazil program to help these workers and their families gain new labor and life skills in urban areas. Through this program, CARE created a micro-credit program to help entrepreneurs start their own businesses, trained unskilled workers in construction and provided several agricultural educational programs.
Cargill and CARE are also partnering to improve the income opportunities of cocoa bean farmers in the Amazon region by guaranteeing fair trade practices and pricing, ensuring an open market for small farmers, and introducing demand for a new sustainable cocoa bean product on the international market.
• Literacy programs – through the fura bolo program Cargill is partnering with local authorities to support teachers in elementary schools by providing children’s literature, based on Brazilian folklore, to teach children to read and write, and to encourage reading amongst children under 10 years old – reaching more than 54,000 students. We are also supporting essay and drawing competitions for over 6,000 school students, and a program that is improving literacy amongst 250 young people and adults in Ilhéus.
• School garden projects – the de grão em grão (grain by grain) program is helping schools turn their unused areas of land into gardens to help children learn how to sow, grow, harvest cook and eat vegetables at schools throughout Brazil. Employees from Cargill Cacau are supporting 22 schools and 8,000 students in the Bahia area, as part of a Cargill employee volunteer program to support 52,000 students in 136 schools across seven states in Brazil.
• Backyard vegetable gardens – we are helping over 200 underprivileged people from four urban and rural communities learn gardening techniques, which is resulting in improvements in their family’s diets and providing them with opportunities to increase their household incomes.
• Health and social programs – we are supporting local activities to provide education and support for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as blood donation.