What We’re Doing

Without Cocoa There Would Be No Chocolate

No Curly Wurly, no Moro and no Cherry Ripe. Guaranteeing a long term, sustainable cocoa yield is vital to Cadbury’s success – and it has to be produced to the high quality and ethical standards expected by our business, the retailers who sell the product, and the people who eat it.

It’s 100 years since the Cadbury family started trading with Ghana

In 1908 the family moved production to Ghana because of concerns about the treatment of farmers in São Tomé where they had originally sourced their cocoa.

Cadbury helped found the cocoa industry in Ghana

Whilst we don’t own farms, our initiatives and partnerships have played a part in helping Ghana grow some of the best cocoa beans in the world.

And the best beans means the best bars.

The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership

The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership aims to support the development of sustainable cocoa growing communities in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean. The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership is a truly ground-breaking investment aiming to help secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of around one million cocoa farmers and their communities. The key goals are:

  1. Improving cocoa farmer incomes
  2. Introducing new sources of rural income
  3. Investing in community led development
  4. Working in partnership

The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership aims to support the development of sustainable cocoa growing communities in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean.

Our Commitment

Over the next ten years we will invest around £45 million – aiming not only to guarantee a reliable, long-term source of the right quality cocoa, but also to improve livelihoods for cocoa farmers.

To achieve this, we are working in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, local governments, farmer organisations and local communities as well as international NGOs such as The International Cocoa Initiative, Anti-Slavery International, VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas), World Vision, and CARE.

"50 years is the average age of a Ghanaian cocoa farmer now. The younger ones are not entering into cocoa farming. So it is very important that Cadbury Partnership has come now so that we can together form a partnership to encourage the youth to enter into cocoa farming."

"It is very important that we come together now to form a partnership that encourages the youth to enter into cocoa farming"

Stephen Nyame, General Agricultural Workers Union

Our Goals

  1. Improving farmer incomes by helping farms to increase their yields and produce top quality beans.
  2. Introducing new sources of rural income through microfinance and business support to kick start new rural businesses and introduce additional income streams such as growing other crops.
  3. Developing communities by helping them meet their own goals and improve rural life. For example, by supporting health through building wells for clean, safe water; education, through schools and libraries; and the environment, through biodiversity projects.
  4. Working in partnership a pioneering model led from the grass roots. Farmers, governments, NGOs and international agencies work together to decide how the funding is spent and work with local organisations to turn plans into action.

"Because we don’t operate cocoa on a large scale, we can’t even save. So anytime it is not cocoa season, our finances go down."

Ghanaian Farmer, commenting on his needs as a cocoa farmer

Earthwatch

We teamed up with Earthwatch and Ghana's Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) to help communities harness the tourism potential of cocoa, of which Ghana is the world's second-largest producer.

Just as visitors to Cadbury's chocolate factory in the UK can learn about the history of chocolate, tourists visiting the village of Adjeikrom in Ghana will now be able to see how cocoa is sustainably farmed within the rainforest.

Through research, we are working with farmers to encourage biodiversity and sustainable, environmentally friendly farming.

During the last 3 years 78 of our employees spent two weeks in the Ghanaian rainforest helping scientists collect data to understand the impact of cocoa farming on biodiversity.

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