Berta de Pablos-Barbier, president of Mars Wrigley Confectionery U.S., talks Mars Inc.'s Sustainable in a Generation plan.

Indonesian cocoa farmers who adopted good agricultural practices through Mondelez International’s Cocoa Life program saw average cocoa yields grow by 10 percent  in 2016, the confectionery and snack giant announced Tuesday.

Cargill has sketched out five sustainability objectives it will pursue over the next 13 years through the Cargill Cocoa Promise, the company’s five-year-old cocoa sustainability program.

In a just released report titled “Chocolate’s Dark Secret,” Mighty Earth, a global environmental campaign organization, claimed that 90 percent of protected national parks in the Ivory Coast have been deforested for growing cocoa while Ghana was undergoing a similar process. 

In pointing out that the global business supply chain is “broken,” Mars CEO Grant Reid said business needs to lead “transformational change” in order to tackle the most urgent threats facing the planet and its people.

Cocoa-certifying organization UTZ has intensified its partnership with the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an organization focused on protecting children in cocoa-growing communities.

The company is focused on improving its environmental sustainability, strengthening local communities, providing children with the nutrition they need to learn and grow, responding to consumers’ desire for greater transparency and simple ingredients, and offering an engaging and flexible workplace for its employees.

Mondelez International unveiled two new directives in support of reducing deforestation in West African cocoa supply chains.

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.