The Hershey Company recognizes that the chocolate and cocoa industry must work together on a pre-competitive basis to achieve progress in addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the cocoa sector.
Along with nearly 70 other chocolate and cocoa companies from around the world, we actively support the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and its efforts to improve cocoa sustainability.
The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) – administered by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and funded by World Cocoa Foundation members, USAID and West African Governments – helps West African farmers realize higher prices for their cocoa harvests by selling collectively, and educates farming communities about best practices for safe, responsible labor.
The Farmer Field School Program, also part of STCP, also helps small cocoa farmers raise their family incomes substantially and uphold good labor practices. These "schools without walls" train cocoa farmers how to increase productivity, reduce crop loss and diversify the crops they grow. In Cameroon, farmers participating in these programs saw their incomes increase by 55 percent in 2004.
With the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hershey and industry peers are investing in the $40 million, five-year "West Africa Cocoa Livelihoods Program," which seeks to boost farmer incomes significantly. In an effort to move cocoa growing from subsistence farming to true social and economic sustainability, the program will help farmers improve production, quality and business skills; access agricultural inputs, quality seedlings and market information; and advance crop diversification and develop farmer organizations.
In 2001, our company joined the global cocoa and chocolate industry in signing a congressionally sponsored protocol designed to ensure that children are not harmed in cocoa farming. Working through this framework since then, the global industry has developed and is implementing a certification system to report on farm labor conditions and ensure that corrective action is taken when needed.
Through the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), a foundation established as part of the protocol, The Hershey Company and other industry leaders have joined with labor unions, key NGOs and labor activists to drive positive and lasting change. ICI works to raise farm family and community awareness of the need for responsible labor practices, promote and ensure opportunities for youth education, build critical local skills and services, and take appropriate action where children are found to be exploited. To date, its programs have reached over 800,000 community members in over 250 West African cocoa farming communities.
The WCF's website offers extensive background and progress updates. The ICI website provides details on its programs, partners and progress.
To learn more about how Hershey's efforts benefit cocoa communities, please see our "Business Practices and Programs" page.