14.05.2019
The Sustainable Cocoa Forum adopts new targets
Gerd Müller, Minister for Development, during his brief address to the Sustainable Cocoa Forum
By adopting twelve new objectives at its seventh general meeting, the Sustainable Cocoa Forum has demonstrated that it takes its responsibility as a pioneer in driving improvements in the cocoa sector seriously. This followed an internal process lasting almost one and a half years, which was initiated primarily by members from civil society. The Sustainable Cocoa Forum is an alliance of stakeholders from the cocoa industry, NGOs and the political sphere.
The starting point for formulating new objectives was the deeply worrying reports on the current situation in the producing countries. In West Africa in particular, efforts to eliminate child labour and poverty, and to halt the ongoing deforestation, remain inadequate.
Dr Christiane Hellar, who played an active role in this process on behalf of the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik, expressly welcomed the adoption of the objectives and the new, more comprehensive definition of sustainable cocoa. “An important step has been taken in ensuring that the issue of sustainability is not reduced to certification and sustainability standards, but is instead broadened to address issues such as a living income for cocoa farmers more effectively,” she said. However, the greater challenge – namely the practical implementation and monitoring of progress by individual members – still lies ahead for the Forum, according to Christiane Hellar. For in this context, too, the motto raised by Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller in his brief address applies: “If a voluntary commitment does not help, we must introduce statutory regulation.”