African cocoa sourcing during COVID-19: Barry Callebaut VP flags smooth transitions and safety as key priorities

01 Jun 2020 --- With Africa being the largest cocoa producing region in the world, Barry Callebaut continues to source and process chocolate ingredients, while prioritizing the safety of employees and following the coronavirus precautionary measures introduced by the African government. Jo Thys, Vice President for Cocoa Africa at Barry Callebaut, explains how the company is rapidly addressing changing situations and enabling smooth transitions from workplace to home offices.

“Our first consideration was the safety of our people, and we had to address this in a rapidly changing situation. Our care also extended beyond our employees, to outsourced services, such as our security teams and workers from trucking companies who deliver for us,” says Thys. 

Alternative working arrangements, such as home office, meant ensuring that all those who had to work from home suddenly, could do so. To address this, Barry Callebaut needed to procure adequate resources such as laptops, smartphones and data bundles for our people to enable a smooth transition from the workplace to the home office.

The response from government directives on COVID-19 differed across countries in Region Africa. “For example, in Côte d’Ivoire, there was a curfew commencing at 9 pm and ending at 5 am, so we had to address the big question – how do we keep sites and factories running as normal?” continues Thys. “The first step was to reconstitute the shifts to work around the curfew. Our shift and factory colleagues worked together to organize a different shift structure, two shifts of twelve hours, without any impact on the factory’s output.” 

In terms of social distancing, it is relatively easy to do this on-site, but public transport in Africa, typically buses, are exceptionally packed, notes Thys. “So you can imagine that it is more of a complex problem to maintain social distancing. Therefore, we decided to rent buses to specifically pick up our people to take them to and from their homes to sites in a safe way.”

Cocoa sourcing and delivery of cocoa
In terms of cocoa farming, cocoa has not stopped growing, despite COVID-19. “So the cocoa is indeed still flowing and we are still purchasing. Our common aim, however, is to support farmer livelihoods and communities, and second, continue our sourcing business without contaminating up-country operations,” explains Thys. 

Moreover, there is less traffic passing through cocoa-growing communities. Less traffic means less cash being injected, restaurants and shops are not open, and he flags. “So our teams on the ground have been working very hard to support farmer communities in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Tanzania. For example, we have been buying locally made soap from communities that have provided additional income to farming communities. We have donated hand washing equipment, protective masks, sanitizer kits and partnered with our customers and local government on sensitization activities of COVID-19 preventive measures and hygiene activities.”

“We have also distributed food parcels to needy families, and this includes families in the communities in which we work and live. In Ghana, for example, we donated food parcels to support around 500 families living near our factory,” he explains. 

A silver lining during COVID-19?
According to Thys, the entire Region Africa team has come closer together during these unprecedented times. “Our people are passionate about supporting the operations during COVID-19, of adapting to how they work, adjusting to different shift patterns, or staying in alternative accommodation close to our sites,” he comments. 

“The creativity and ingenuity of our people have also shone at this time,” Thys asserts. “The additional washing facilities at our sites were handmade and communications evolved during this time. As the situation unfolded, communication was critical to informing our people and for maintaining business continuity. Our issue teams who met every day discovered that the best way to communicate was not via email or notice boards in our sites,” he details. 

“We also had a visit from one of the medical officers who is a member of the advisory team working with the Ghanaian government on the COVID-19 situation. She reviewed the interventions that we had put in place to support our people. The feedback that we received was that they were so impressed with what we had done – that we could transport our people and provide them with accommodations, to keep them safe,” he concludes. 

Edited by Elizabeth Green