Ending deforestation: Inside our cocoa supply chain progress

Photo credit: @Sandrine Bénitah Cargill’s purpose is to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. We sit at the heart of the global supply chain that connects farmers with markets and customers with ingredients. From this critical position, we believe Cargill has a unique ability and responsibility to help our food system become more sustainable and resilient.

Since 2017, we have teamed up with farmers, governments, cocoa companies and the World Cocoa Foundation for the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) to collectively end cocoa-related deforestation and restore valuable forest areas in those countries. This work ties into our commitment for all our agricultural supply chains to be deforestation-free. Each year we are making progress toward this goal through mapping and traceability, advancing programs to grow cocoa more sustainably, and helping farmers adopt agroforestry and conservation practices.

To understand if deforestation is happening in your supply chain, you need traceability. That’s why each year, we are increasing transparency throughout our supply chain and we are gaining more sophisticated insights through Global Positioning System (GPS) polygon mapping. We are pleased to report that as of the 2022/2023 crop year, the majority of farmers in our Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire direct supply chains are now polygon mapped.

Photo credit: @Sandrine Bénitah Deforestation monitoring ensures us that our actions continue to help protect forests – and provides crucial information on whether corrective action is required. Every time a cocoa farm is mapped or remapped, our in-house geographic information systems (GIS) software performs an automatic deforestation risk assessment. We overlay polygon maps with publicly available geospatial forest data from the global forest watch (GFW) to assess any significant forest loss in our supply chain.

Data reliability and a thorough understanding of the cause and location of deforestation are crucial to develop effective and adequate mitigation measures. By building this knowhow consistently over the years, we now have a robust set-up that also aims to ensure that we are compliant with relevant applicable regulations such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which will come into effect as of 30 December 2024.

Cargill delivers the CFI commitments through our Cargill Cocoa Promise program, in which we build capacity to improve socio-economic and climate resilience for cocoa farmers, enhance the safety and well-being of children and families in cocoa growing areas, promote environmental best practices, and protect forests.