Barry Callebaut Launches HORIZONS Sustainable Products and the Cocoa Chronicles

16 Nov 2015 --- Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, today announced the launch of the HORIZONS range of sustainable cocoa and chocolate products. This further promotes Barry Callebaut’s efforts to scale impact and drive change on the ground to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers and their communities.

Sustainable HORIZONS cocoa and chocolate products are sold by Barry Callebaut with a premium used to help improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities. These customer premiums are channeled to the recently announced Cocoa Horizons Foundation to fund cocoa sustainability activities such as farmer training and support, and community development, in a transparent and externally verified process. The Cocoa Horizons Foundation serves as a new platform for chocolate companies and other contributors to invest in sustainable cocoa. It relies on Barry Callebaut’s expertise to implement the sustainability activities.

On the ground, Barry Callebaut’s sustainability team works with cooperatives and its own direct sourcing and farm services organizations to implement these activities for the benefit of registered farmers and farmer groups. Cocoa produced by farmers involved in these activities - currently about 25,000 - will be sold as Barry Callebaut’s sustainable HORIZONS cocoa and chocolate products.

These products are sold to food manufacturers as well as artisanal and professional customers and include cocoa beans, cocoa nibs, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and chocolate. The cocoa is sourced from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Tanzania.

HORIZONS cocoa is the successor to Barry Callebaut’s previous Quality Partner Program. With the creation of the Cocoa Horizons Foundation, it has evolved and improved to better scale impact. It focuses on farm productivity and community development to address on the ground challenges. It offers transparency on the use of funds and the breakdown of premiums. HORIZONS cocoa also includes the traceability of beans from farm to warehouse. Furthermore, the cocoa sustainability activities and the distribution of premiums are verified externally on an annual basis.

Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO Barry Callebaut, comments: "I am excited about the development of HORIZONS cocoa and chocolate products, with the focus on supporting our customers on their sustainability journey. We also expect to attract new customers for these sustainable products, thereby scaling impact and driving change in cocoa sustainability globally."

In order to help its customers drive consumer demand for sustainable cocoa, Barry Callebaut has developed an innovative set of narratives, the “Cocoa Chronicles”, which are driven by consumer benefits. These will enable customers of the HORIZONS products to leverage sustainability initiatives through their brands.

Bringing to life the complex world of sustainability in a meaningful and engaging way is a challenging but important task in driving a brand’s purpose and positioning. In order to add value for its customers, Barry Callebaut and its partners gathered extensive consumer and market research to build a robust catalogue of stories, satisfying the wide variety of customer targets. Each narrative is coupled with on-the-ground proof points, from facts and stats to farmer quotes and testimonials. Inspiration for ways in which customers can bring stories to life is also provided.