Cocoa for Generations puts cocoa farmers first

At Mars we’ve been making chocolate and buying cocoa for more than 100 years, putting cocoa at the heart of our company’s long heritage. Four decades have been spent working in collaboration with others to achieve sustainable cocoa production. Cocoa is an integral ingredient in our beloved chocolate products and we know a sustainable cocoa sector is essential to ensure we can continue to provide chocolate for future generations of chocolate lovers.

This means creating a cocoa sector where human rights are respected, the environment is protected and everyone, especially cocoa farmers, has the opportunity to thrive. For the latest updates on our progress to create a more inclusive, modern and sustainable cocoa supply chain that benefits both people and the planet, we invite you to read our 2022 Cocoa for Generations report(Opens a new window).

A modern, inclusive & sustainable cocoa ecosystem where everyone can thrive

We’ve made progress in tackling the environmental and social challenges facing the cocoa sector.

Yet, we remain unrelenting in our quest for holistic collaborative solutions that drive the systemic change our world urgently needs, while also addressing the environmental and social challenges we face.

This is why, together with our company’s commitment to create mutual benefits for all as outlined in our Sustainable in a Generation Plan, in 2018 we launched our Cocoa for Generations(Opens a new window) strategy.

Backed by a $1 billion investment over 10 years, Cocoa for Generations has two pillars: Responsible Cocoa Today and Sustainable Cocoa Tomorrow.

Placing the interests of the smallholder farmer at its center, Cocoa for Generations is how we aim to step-change efforts and invite the cocoa sector to partner with us in a new approach to advance respect for human rights, preserve the environment and improve livelihoods today, while creating a pathway for a more inclusive, modern and sustainable cocoa ecosystem where everyone can thrive,

Advancing respect for human rights

Protecting children and empowering women and communities are pivotal to a thriving cocoa supply chain. Our Strategic Approach to Protecting Children in Cocoa Farming Communities sets out how we identify, prevent and mitigate human rights issues — with a focus on child and forced labor in our extended cocoa supply chain — through comprehensive human rights due diligence processes as well as community-based investments that help tackle the root causes of these complex issues. In all this work, we aim to put cocoa farmers and communities at the center of our efforts.

For the latest update on our work to advance respect for human rights, we invite you to read our Respecting Human Rights in the Cocoa Supply Chain Report. The report features the progress we’ve made, what we are learning and where more effort and collaboration is needed to achieve our 2025 human rights goals.

Related resource

Cocoa for Generations Aims to Protect Families in Cocoa-Farming Communities

Mother and child from a cocoa farming community

Related resource

Cocoa for Generations Aims to Protect Families in Cocoa-Farming Communities

Preserving the environment

Forests serve as important reservoirs of carbon, and the clearance of primary forest cover causes serious increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Forests also provide habitat for half of all known plant and animal species, regulate local rainfall patterns and provide livelihoods for millions of people in rural communities. Achieving a deforestation- and conversion-free supply chain for 100% of the cocoa we source by 2025 is the single largest and most significant first step Mars Snacking and Mars, Incorporated can take towards delivering on our ambition to hold flat our land use(Opens a new window), reduce greenhouse gas emissions(Opens a new window) from our value chain by 27% by 2025 (vs 2015 baseline), and achieve net zero(Opens a new window) greenhouse gas emissions across our full value chain by 2050.

Related resource

Cocoa and Forests Action Plan

Related resource

Cocoa and Forests Action Plan

Improve farmer income

Boosting cocoa farmer income while ensuring cocoa is grown sustainably is key to a thriving cocoa sector that benefits people and the planet. There is no single answer to closing the living income gap for cocoa farmers. That’s why we use a multifaceted, holistic approach in our efforts to help close living income gaps for cocoa farmers, as part of our Cocoa for Generations strategy. By sharing our innovations and learnings, actively collaborating with other cocoa actors, we aim to accelerate positive impact for people in cocoa communities and for the planet we share.

Related resource

Income Position Statement

Related resource

Income Position Statement

We cannot achieve these ambitions alone

At Mars, we’re ready to take a new approach that creates a pathway for cocoa farmers, their families and their communities to thrive. Cocoa for Generations is our contribution and we want others to join us in the development of effective, scalable and innovative solutions. We commit to two pillars of work – Responsible Cocoa Today and Sustainable Cocoa Tomorrow - through which we will step up our efforts to increase smallholder farmer income, protect children and preserve forests today, while working to crack the code on a model for a modern, inclusive and sustainable cocoa ecosystem for tomorrow.

To achieve this in the cocoa supply chain, we must drive change at a large scale, work in partnership with others who share or support our vision, and also challenge ourselves and others to look for new models and opportunities to lead the way. We welcome collaboration from civil society, governments, academics and other industry players.

Built on the foundations of the Mars’ global Human Rights Policy, Deforestation Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct, the Cocoa for Generations strategy is the collective approach to how these policies will be implemented across our cocoa supply chain.

Cocoa farming community with students learning in a school classroom.

Responsible cocoa today

Ensure 100% of our cocoa is responsibly sourced globally and is traceable (from the farmer to the first point of purchase) by 2025. Going beyond the current level of certification standards and practices and committing us to action across three focus areas that put cocoa farmers, communities and the environment at the center of our efforts. By changing what and how we implement, we aim to improve conditions for all the farmers from whom we source and will actively engage the industry, governments and civil society to advance these focus areas across the cocoa sector.

See what we’re doing

Sustainable cocoa tomorrow

Deploy at scale the initiatives we have identified as most likely to accelerate the modernization of the cocoa sector. Our ambition is to demonstrate that a step-change in farmer income and livelihoods is possible and by doing so we hope to show the path for others so together we transform the whole sector.

See our plan

Cocoa research and science

Good science is needed to ensure healthier, more resilient and more productive cocoa plants. Cacao farmers produce just 10 percent of the output they could achieve under perfect conditions with best practices. Mars believes its research efforts can help boost the productivity of the farmers we depend on by further encouraging greater funding into cacao research.

Learn More

Cocoa for Generations 2022 report

Mars Takes Action on Creating a Modern, Inclusive and Sustainable Cocoa Ecosystem

At Mars, as one of the world's leading purchasers of cocoa beans and products globally, we acknowledge our role in the sector is unique and the responsibility it entails within the industry.

Cocoa holds a special place in our heritage. For over a century, we've sourced cocoa for our beloved brands, contributing to Mars’ pursuit of quality growth. Beyond its significance to us, cocoa is essential to the livelihoods of approximately 350,000 farmers in our global supply chain, many of whom are smallholders. We depend on cocoa farming communities, and this mutual relationship drives us to continuously strive to be a trusted partner.

In 2018, through our Cocoa for Generations(Opens a new window) strategy, we committed a billion dollars over a period of ten years to drive real change ensuring 100% of our cocoa is responsibly sourced and traceable to the first point of purchase by 2025. Our latest annual update – available to read here(Opens a new window) – details how Mars and our key partners are working to create a modern, inclusive and sustainable cocoa ecosystem where everyone can thrive.