What if you had to tell your child that there would be no candy this Halloween? Now THAT’S scary!
While we’re far from that nightmare, the fact of the matter is that in the past 20 years, demand for chocolate has doubled, while the supply of cocoa beans has remained stagnant. Tough economic conditions, poor social conditions for farmers and lower-yielding crops have put the future of cocoa, and chocolate at risk.
Since 2009, Nestlé has been finding ways to sustainably source the cocoa it uses in many of your favorite chocolate products through its Nestlé Cocoa Plan. Sustainability is all about working toward a bright future, and we all know that a future without chocolate is not much fun!
With tasty options like Nestlé fun-size CRUNCH bars made with 100% sustainable cocoa, doing our part as a consumer is easy.
Until recently I never really thought too much about where the cocoa came from that made the chocolate I love so much!
Cocoa trees are quite fragile – they grow only between 20° north and 20° south. They do well in temperatures of 20°C to 32°C and like plenty of rainfall. They are relatively small trees that like some shade and humidity so are therefore found on the lower level of evergreen rain forests.
There aren’t many places in the world where the conditions are right to grow cocoa. Well over half the world’s total production is grown in two West African countries – Côte d’Ivoire (39%) and Ghana (19%). Other countries which produce significant quantities are Indonesia (13%), Nigeria (5%), Cameroon (5%) and Ecuador (3%).
Most cocoa farming is small scale. Around 95% of cocoa is grown in smallholdings of less than four hectares (10 acres) and is typically a family enterprise, much as it was 100 years ago. The whole process of growing, harvesting and drying the beans is usually not mechanised.
This Halloween when you are choosing the treat to hand out to your Trick or Treaters, consider choosing Nestlé made with 100% sustainable cocoa See nestlecocoaplan.ca for more information.
How to know if your chocolate is made from sustainable cocoa?
Check the labels. If your package has one of the following companies logos, you are good!
UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade Foundation and Nestle Cocoa Plan are the four to look for.
Happy Halloween!
Disclosure- The above mentioned product was received as a thank you for my sharing of the above information
thank you for this!! 🙂
That is great to hear. I love nestle Crunch bars.