The latest annual report of the Cacao-Trace® sustainable cocoa program from Puratos and Belcolade shows it shared a €3.2 million “Chocolate Bonus” in 2024 – an increase exceeding 33% year on year – with a further €3.8 million paid in the form of its unique Quality Premium. With over 19,000 customer partners now involved in the scheme, these figures represent its highest ever annual payments to cocoa farmers and their communities, ensuring a life-changing impact for a record number of them: 24,073 across eight countries.   

The Chocolate Bonus, determined by the amount of Cacao-Trace chocolate sold each year, directly boosts farmer income as well as funding health and education projects in cocoa-growing communities. In 2024, it enabled the construction of 72 water facilities (including towers, tanks and pumps) and seven school projects. In addition, the Quality Premium is paid (on top of the farmgate price) to all Cacao-Trace® farmers to reflect the superior quality of the wet cocoa beans they deliver.

Doing Good – to the tune of €10 million  

“We’re incredibly proud of what we achieved in our last year,” states Youri Dumont, chocolate business unit lead for Puratos. “Our guiding principle is ‘Great Taste, Doing Good,’ and the payments we made to our farmers and communities reflect clearly how Cacao-Trace delivers on both these fronts. The huge increase in this year’s Chocolate Bonus demonstrates the continued relevance and value of Cacao-Trace’s ambition and commitment to ‘doing good.’ As it approaches its tenth anniversary next year, the Bonus has now paid out over €10 million over the course of its history, thanks to the customers who share our values and choose this one-of-a-kind chocolate. This money is fundamental to better farmer incomes and goes into life-changing community projects including initiatives like the distribution of school kits and building maternity facilities in cocoa-growing regions.”  

New initiatives worldwide  

The new Cacao-Trace report details significant progress across all its cocoa-growing countries, with the launch of several new initiatives. Critical was a project to build further awareness and transparency of the challenges facing the cocoa industry, evidenced by over 150 customers visiting our facilities, for instance, to see the Cacao-Trace program in action. In the pursuit of ‘Great Taste,’ a new grinding line was launched in Mexico following the introduction of the program’s first in-house cocoa bean roasting line in Vietnam, allowing a greater level of process control to meet Cacao-Trace’s high quality standards. Peru saw the opening of a new post-harvest centre, which aims to ferment over 1,000 tons of beans annually, promising not only higher quality cocoa, but also a brighter future for local farmers and their communities.

Dumont adds, “When it comes to Great Taste, quality has been fundamental since day one. The Cacao-Trace approach – from our wet bean strategy, through our unique fermentation expertise to careful drying and roasting – means Cacao-Trace chocolate truly stands out in the market and has incredible appeal to, and value for, professionals and consumers alike. In fact, all Belcolade chocolate innovations are Cacao-Trace certified, recognizing the program’s great taste and benefits for farmers. Ultimately, the long-term success of the program, and our ability to enhance farmer livelihoods, has always been inherently linked to great-tasting chocolate and the partnerships we have with an ever-growing number of customers.”

An eye to the future

Alongside its recent successes, the Cacao-Trace report casts an eye forward – towards a fairer and more sustainable cocoa and chocolate industry in the future. It confirms that the program is ahead of schedule in its aim to plant 1,194,378 trees by the end of 2025, for instance, and on track to reach over 25,000 farmers this year. Longer term, the aim by 2030 is the distribution of an €8 million Chocolate Bonus, to 50,000 farmers.

 

Editorial contact:
Editor: Kiran Grewal kgrewal@kennedys.co.uk