The Cacao-Trace programme, set up in 2015 by Belgian bakery and chocolate specialist Puratos, aims to improve the living conditions of planters by focusing on improved cocoa quality, which also means increased value.
Founded in 1919, the Belgian company Puratos now operates in over 130 countries and employs around 10,000 people worldwide. In addition to its bakery and patisserie activities, the manufacturer is also a major player in the chocolate industry, marketing couverture chocolate under its Belcolade brand in Belgium, among others, for a large number of professional customers such as industrialists, retailers and artisans.
Almost ten years ago, the company made a major change to its cocoa sourcing. “In our chocolate business, we realised that cocoa farmers were in an untenable situation,” explains Sylvestre Awono, Cocoa-Trace expert at Puratos. “We analysed the proposed alternatives and wanted to do more, to go further in our actions to solve the industry’s problems. That’s why we created the Cacao-Trace programme, which is based on the idea that if we want to tackle problems, we must first create value. And we are doing this by controlling the fermentation of cocoa beans and developing superior-tasting chocolate. We then use this created value to help our producer communities, hence our slogan: ‘Great taste, doing good’.”
Quality premium and chocolate bonus
More concretely, Puratos pays growers in its Cacao-Trace chain, notably in Côte d’Ivoire, several premiums for the “superior” cocoa they produce. “There are five forms of payment in total,” explains Sylvestre Awono. “First, there is the remuneration of the ‘edge-of-field’ price (Editor’s note: around 1,500 euros in 2023), which is paid to the grower in cash. We then pay a quality premium of up to the equivalent of 152 euros per tonne, which is also paid to the planter in cash. Another premium, of around 76 euros per tonne, is paid to the cooperative, to support its activities. On top of that, we pay a ‘chocolate bonus’ of 10 euro cents per kilo of chocolate we sell, which can represent up to 150 euros per tonne of cocoa beans.” In 2022, this ‘chocolate bonus’ amounted to 1.574 million euros for partner communities in Côte d’Ivoire alone, where the money is used to finance a range of local development projects. Six schools and two health centres are under construction, while 25 villages will be fitted with solar-powered water towers and 9,750 school kits have been distributed. Eventually, once the basic needs (water, schools, health care, etc.) of the different communities have been met, the ‘chocolate bonus’ will be paid directly to the growers in the form of cash, as is already the case in Mexico, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Once these various items have been added up, the payment can be as much as 1,800 euros per tonne for the cocoa farmer and around 76 euros per tonne for the cooperative. For the same year, 2022, Fairtrade International had set the Living Income Reference Price for cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire, i.e. the minimum amount needed for a household to support its members, at $2,390 per tonne (2,175 euros). “But that’s not all, since we also cover a range of costs such as audits, training, certification and the programme, which are normally the responsibility of the cooperatives,” stresses the Puratos expert, who points out that these costs can reach considerable amounts, even if they are difficult to quantify as they vary greatly from case to case. “It is important to note that in other initiatives, these costs are usually paid by the cooperatives with the money from the different premiums collected.” Lastly, the Cacao-Trace programme also includes an agroforestry component that has planted 427,000 trees since 2019, with a million more due to be planted by 2025. The Puratos initiative currently involves a total of 15,273 planter families worldwide. And the company hopes to reach a further 10,000 over the next two years.
Today, around a third of the chocolate produced by Belcolade in Belgium and a quarter of the chocolate produced by Puratos worldwide comes from its ‘Cacao-Trace’ chain. “Our medium-term objective is to ensure that 50% of our total production is Cacao-Trace,” says Sylvestre Awono, adding that the Belgian producer also offers other certifications such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. “To achieve our objectives, we have an active policy to encourage our customers to choose Cacao-Trace in the first place; all our new product launches are part of the programme, we are gradually converting our standard products, and so on. The fact that we have chosen to invest fully in Cacao-Trace means, quite simply, that we are convinced that our programme goes further than other initiatives in terms of its impact on the quality of life of cocoa farmers.”
“If our products are inaccessible, we won’t succeed.”
However, several parameters limit the scope of the Puratos programme, the first being sales volumes. “The limits of our model are linked to the willingness and ability of our customers and consumers to pay the price of sustainability,” emphasises Sylvestre Awono. “Unfortunately, not all programmes have the same objectives and charges. But we strive to find the balance that will enable us to remain an optimal solution for our customers while helping our communities as much as we can. After all, it’s consumers who finance the programme. If we develop products they don’t like, we won’t succeed. If they like our products, but these products are financially inaccessible, we also won’t succeed.” More broadly, the Cacao-Trace expert believes that it is also essential to work on transparency and information, and even consumer education. “The price paid for chocolate today is not high enough, we have to be able to say that. All the stakeholders in this sector say they have just about enough to continue, all but two: the growers and the environment. The former could then move to a more lucrative activity, while the latter is threatened with destruction. In both cases, this means a risk of cocoa unavailability in the future. Consumers need to know that if they like chocolate and want to continue to enjoy it, they should be prepared to pay a bit more.”
Lastly, another point of note identified by Sylvestre Awono is the programme’s growth. “We have to make sure we grow it, but without diluting its quality or impact. Because that’s where our ambition lies: we want to champion impact at the producer level. We must not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about people who get up every morning, who do hard work, and who for the most part do not even earn a living wage, i.e. enough to live decently. This living wage can therefore be a stepping stone, but by no means the final objective.” But time is running out, warns the Puratos expert. “There is a growing awareness in the sector, and a number of initiatives are moving in the right direction. But now is not the time to count our steps, we have to speed up, and even run, very fast. Quite simply, it’s a matter of survival for the entire sector in the medium term.”
