Another Step in Nestlé’s Sustainability Journey
This week marks another important milestone in Nestlé’s cocoa sustainability journey as a report on the 10,000-farmer test at scale of the income accelerator programme is published.
As a recap, the programme incentivises and supports farmers to take action in four areas that will help them close the living income gap while reducing child labour risks.
The report, authored by the NGO KIT shows the positive impact that the programme has had on cocoa farming families and their communities in its first 18 months, including
- 38% increase in net income, with more farmers reaching living income threshold
- 32% increase in productivity (kg per hectare)
- 10 percentage point increase in children enrolled in school
- 36 percentage point increase in women classified as ‘empowered’
Nestlé have already enrolled the next 20,000 farmers into the programme, extending beyond Côte d’Ivoire into Ghana, on the way to reaching 160,000 farmers in their global cocoa supply chain by the end of the decade with an investment of >£1bn.
The release of the report coincides with the first production of KITKAT ‘Breaks for Good’ packs in York.
Through significant work with their supply chain partners including the Rainforest Alliance and Cargill, Nestlé have now established a segregated supply chain for our cocoa. What this means in practice is that all of the chocolate we make in the UK (plus some of our other European sites) for products including KITKAT, QUALITY STREET, AERO, SMARTIES, AFTER EIGHT, YORKIE, ROLO and MUNCHIES will use cocoa liquor that’s traceable back to farmers enrolled in the cocoa income accelerator programme.
It means that every time a consumer chooses a UK-manufactured Nestlé Confectionery product, they do so knowing they are helping farmers build towards a living income with children enrolled in school. Cocoa traceability at this scale is unprecedented in the UK/Irish market.
You can read the full report here:
Income-accelerator-programme-progress-report-summary