Beginning on July 1, the new three-year phase of the project will have more ambitious goals and a wider group of partners.

CARE, in collaboration with The Starbucks Foundation and Cargill, is launching a new effort that will help transform cocoa growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and builds on decades of CARE’s experience in developing Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs).

Cargill’s activities in Côte d’Ivoire span more than two decades, including the opening of the Yopougon plant in 2000.

More than 300 environmental, human rights and good governance NGOs have signed a letter outlining steps the Ghanaian and Ivorian governments should take to encourage sustainable cocoa while supporting farmers and protecting forests, environmental advocacy organization Mighty Earth reported.

A coalition of philanthropic partners and companies in the cocoa and chocolate industry have joined forces with Cote D’Ivoire to support its strategic objectives to combat child labor.

Cocoa organizations in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire now say sustainability programs carried out by chocolate makers and confectionery companies can work in harmony with the new per-tonne living income differential the countries established in July.

Cocoa organizations in Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana are reviewing the status of all cocoa sustainability and certification programs to put greater emphasis on implementing the living income differential the countries established in July.

Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire have agreed to institute a per-tonne “living income differential” as part of a new payment structure designed to fortify incomes of the countries’ cocoa producers.

Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire have suspended pre-sales of the 2020-2021 season cocoa crop as the governments work to institute a base price for cocoa from those countries.

Barry Callebaut has opened a state-of-the-art processing unit at its Zone 4C Société Africaine de Cacao plant in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.