Thrillers and Suspense
Why did Mars and Cadbury recently decided to seek third-party verification for some or all of their chocolate products? Trading Visions, a UK web site devoted to increasing information and education about fairtrade, wanted to find out. They contacted both Mars and Cadbury and number organizations to provide their answers to this and other questions. I was invited to contribute my own thoughts as well.
You can find the all questions and answers on their web site.
I’ve taken a little time with this post to process some older information I had. But here it is:
Mars has committed to sourcing sustainable cocoa. According the company’s press release, Mars is “aiming to certify its entire cocoa supply as being produced in a sustainable manner, by 2020.” The firm plans to partner with the Rainforest Alliance (RA) which will provide the certification services. Well, at least for some of the cocoa. Here’s the press release again: “By 2020, the goal of the collaboration is to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification of 100,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually for use in Mars products, a significant portion of Mars total cocoa requirements.” No word what significant means. Finally, the press release mentions that Mars will continue to work with UTZ Certified to achieve certification for cocoa produced in West Africa.
