Sustainable Origins™ Strategy
Blommer Chocolate works closely with our customers, suppliers, international organizations and implementation partners on customized sustainability programs. First initiated in 2004, they now cover about 61% of the cocoa we source globally, and 78% of the cocoa we source from West Africa.
Safeguarding the Environment
Throughout all of our sustainability work, safeguarding the environment and preserving the planet for future generations is considered essential. This is a global commitment that customers and producers entrust us to uphold. This is not necessarily an easy task however as there is much evidence that shows that since 2000 there has been a considerable expansion of area under cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire which has come at the expense of virgin rain forest.
Blommer recognizes that the cultivation of agricultural commodities, including cocoa, has been a driver of accelerated deforestation and forest degradation in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s leading producers of cocoa. In response to this challenging problem, Blommer, working with other industry leaders and key development partners, helped to establish the Cocoa and Forests Initiative. Through this effort we have announced our commitment to end deforestation and forest degradation in our direct supply chains in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Given the vital role that smallholder cocoa farming plays in providing for employment and income in local communities, efforts to end deforestation and forest degradation must be done in a socially acceptable manner. In all of our efforts, we understand the critical need for a balanced and comprehensive approach between farmers’ livelihoods and the environmental challenges. View Blommer's statement on deforestation.
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Cocoa Forest Initiative
![Woman, outside, sorting through cocoa beans]()
The Cocoa & Forest Initiative
Blommer was one of the 12 chocolate and cocoa companies, working with key development partners that helped establish the Cocoa and Forests Initiative, a collective multistakeholder effort launched in partnership with the King Charles III’s International Sustainability Unit (ISU) in January, 2017. Blommer participated in building CFI Frameworks for Action released in November 2017. We published our initial action plan in March 2019.
In early 2020, we published our first Cocoa & Forest Initiative report. Our strategy is aligned with CFI priorities:
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Forest protection and restorationSince the beginning of CFI, we have cumulatively distributed 215,434 fruit and forest trees to farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, exceeding our CFI objectives of 135,000.
We promote the planting of 20 forest and fruit trees/ha, to provide shade, limit the spread of pest and diseases and increase the resilience of the farm. Overall, our tree planting effort has lead to the development of 3,400ha of agroforestry. -
Sustainable production and farmers’ livelihoodsSince 2018, Blommer has promoted the planting of 310,598 cocoa seedlings which had been sewn in 13 cocoa nurseries leading to the rehabilitation of 300ha of cocoa farms. During 2022, a total of 8,087 farmers were trained on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) practices as part of group and/or individual training.
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Community engagement and social inclusionBlommer is working with cocoa communities across a variety of community development activities including Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA.) A total of 1,983 people, of which 77% woman were participating in 79 VSLAs.
Looking Ahead
We have reached an important milestone for The Cocoa & Forests Initiative with the successful completion of the collaboration’s first phase. Over the past five years, the signatory governments and companies have made significant progress towards eliminating deforestation and restoring forest areas. Building on this partnership, there is a strong commitment from the companies and government, and other stakeholders, towards the continued and growing success of CFI.
Blommer is committed to building on the progress made under CFI 1.0, and align with the CFI 2.0 vision to collectively pursue our work on forest protection and restoration in the cocoa supply chain. We will focus our efforts on solutions that have proven to be the most impactful during the first phase of CFI, as well as on the wealth of information we acquired during that period to introduce innovative tools and interventions that will contribute to curbing deforestation.
We will continue to implement the most effective activities in the three areas of
- Forest Protection and Restoration,
- Sustainable Production and Farmers' Livelihoods and
- Social Inclusion and Community Engagement.
At the end of 2022, Blommer, along with our parent company Fuji Oil Holdings, have teamed up with Satelligence, the world leader in geospatial forest monitoring, to assess and address deforestation risk in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Ecuador. Satellite monitoring technology will provide landscape and farm level insights that include canopy cover change, carbon loss/gain on and around cocoa farms, risk assessments, identification of shade cocoa areas, and carbon sequestration monitoring. A real-time risk alerting system is also being implemented to enhance Blommer’s capacity to swiftly address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
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