15 Mar 2010 --- Cargill’s Cocoa & Chocolate business has produced the first sustainable UTZ Certified chocolate, which is now on sale to consumers – in the form of Easter eggs.

Baronie, a leading Easter egg producer for the European market, has launched a range of eggs made with UTZ Certified chocolate produced by Cargill. The eggs are now available to buy from Dutch supermarkets.

Jean-Marie van Logtestijn, managing director of Baronie, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Cargill to produce Easter eggs using the first UTZ Certified chocolate. Consumers will be able to enjoy these great products knowing that they contain certified sustainably produced cocoa, which is helping to improve the lives of the farmers that produced it.”

Harold Poelma, managing director of cocoa, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate, explains: “We are very proud to bring the first sustainable UTZ Certified chocolate to market. It is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of our people and the cocoa farmers of Côte d’Ivoire. Availability is limited at the moment, but these Easter eggs are just the beginning. Production is rising and we expect to buy 10,000 tonnes of UTZ Certified cocoa beans this year, as more of the co-operatives which are part of the programme become certified. This will enable us to produce more certified chocolate and cocoa products in the years to come.”

The UTZ Certified cocoa programme has introduced independent certification to improve agricultural, environmental and social practices in cocoa production. The first UTZ Certified cocoa beans arrived in Holland for processing in November 2009. This was the result of an intensive 10 month training programme run by Cargill for 1,690 farmers, after which the first two co-operatives were granted certification following an independent audit. Cargill’s Cocoa & Chocolate business has made a commitment to train a further 10,000 farmers in 300 Farmer Field Schools across 35 co-operatives in Côte d’Ivoire by the end of this year.

Harold Poelma continues: “We are totally committed to sustainable farming practices. We believe that training farmers is the key to building a sustainable supply chain, helping increase farmers’ incomes, realising future growth of cocoa farming, and supporting the cocoa communities. We want to make cocoa farmers successful for generations to come.”

The UTZ Certified cocoa programme was initiated in 2007 by a multi-stakeholder group which included Cargill, UTZ Certified, Dutch development organisation Solidaridad, Heinz Benelux, Ahold, Mars, Nestlé, Ecom, WWF and Oxfam Novib. Together with partners in Côte d’Ivoire, the founding members have developed a code of conduct that forms the fundamental basis for the certification of cocoa co-operatives. The programme is now working to scale up its activities in Côte d’Ivoire and to explore opportunities to expand into other markets.

Daan de Vries, UTZ certified programme manager Cocoa concludes: “Cargill has proven itself as a leading partner in the UTZ Certified Good Inside cocoa programme. With its many years’ experience of training cocoa farmers, and its extensive presence on the ground in the cocoa growing countries, Cargill is a vital partner in the UTZ programme.”