Barry Callebaut First to Collaborate with Rainforest Alliance to Train Cocoa Farmers in Cameroon
Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate, has begun training members of five farmer cooperatives in the Central region of Cameroon to enable them to become independently certified by Rainforest Alliance. Approximately 1,000 farmers will receive training in the next 12 months. This is an extension of the already successful collaboration between Barry Callebaut and the prominent independent certification body that began in Ivory Coast in 2010.
“We see a great opportunity to start work with farmer organizations and producers inCameroonwho are interested in improving yields and quality by growing cocoa in a sustainable way,” says Nicholas Camu, group manager of Cocoa Horizons. “It’s the first time these farmer groups are taking a serious look at the potential benefits of training to achieve certification. We’re proud to be collaborating with the Rainforest Alliance to help enable these pioneering cooperatives reach their ambitious sustainability goals.”
Cocoa Horizons is Barry Callebaut’s ambitious SFr40 million (Eur33 million) cocoa sustainability initiative, launched in March 2012 and designed to boost farm productivity, increase quality and improve family livelihoods in key cocoa producing countries in West and Central Africa, Indonesia and Brazil over the next 10 years.
Barry Callebaut staff in Cameroon will deliver the training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and provide support in setting up internal control systems and improving administrative procedures at the cooperatives, with support of the Rainforest Alliance.
The certification training activities build on the success of Barry Callebaut’s own Quality Partner Program (QPP) with farmer cooperatives, started in Ivory Coast in 2005 and launched in Cameroon in 2010.
