Articles Tagged with ''cocoa farms''

Mars, Inc. plans to triple its global cocoa yield through developing more disease-resistant clones and continuing to improve farmer practices based on genetic knowledge of cocoa.

In February, Associate Editor Alyse Thompson visited Finca El Cacao, a 2,500-hectare cocoa plantation in Nicaragua owned and operated by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG. The company, eager to open up its supply chain and highlight its progress in the Central American country, brought Alyse and German journalists to the plantation to show them how they do things.

Last week, Business Insider posted a story titled “Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years.” Yikes. That’s enough to inspire fear in the hearts of chocolate lovers everywhere — and compel them to click on the link.

Anything worth doing should be done right. And that, of course, takes time.

CocoaAction began collecting data and rolling out community development and productivity practices last year. And they’ve made progress, according to the program’s new annual report, but there’s still a long way to go.

Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has launched an online map documenting flavor profiles of cocoa produced by the nonprofit humanitarian organization’s farmer and cooperative partners.

The Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, two of the world’s leading sustainability certification organizations, will merge later this year.

Olam International has updated the Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS), giving 100,000 smallholder farmers access to detailed information about their farms. 

Cargill has established a licensed buying company in Ghana, allowing the ingredient supplier to directly source cocoa from certified farmers and maintain a traceable purchasing model.