The Cocoa Plan
UTZ CERTIFIED
Compliance with UTZ CERTIFIED’s code of conduct, confirmed through annual inspection by independent auditors, gives assurance of responsible production, care for communities and the environment
Since 2002, UTZ CERTIFIED (“UTZ” means “good” in a Mayan language) has become one of the leading certification programmes for responsible coffee growing with care for local communities and the environment. Following its success in coffee, it is now also used by cocoa and tea farmers.
UTZ CERTIFIED is an independent international non-profit organisation. Its vision is to achieve sustainable supply - with farmers implementing good practices and building their business, the industry rewarding them for sustainably grown products, and consumers buying products that meet their standard for social and environmental responsibility.
Working with the cocoa industry, government and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs), UTZ CERTIFIED is now developing and implementing a mainstream certification and traceability system for sustainable cocoa. Nestlé is a founding member of the cocoa programme.
UTZ CERTIFIED’s cocoa programme started in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producing country and now works in all cocoa producing regions around the world. The developmental stage of the programme was completed at the end of 2009 with the first certified cocoa delivered in early 2010. Nestlé is funding pilot projects in Côte d’Ivoire and is committed to buying an increasing amount of UTZ CERTIFIED beans in the coming years.
The ‘mass balance’ principle
Under UTZ CERTIFIED rules, Nestlé follows the ‘mass balance’ principle. This guarantees that for every kg of certified cocoa that Nestlé buys, the same amount of certified cocoa was sold by an UTZ CERTIFIED farmer at the beginning of the supply chain. It also means the more products we sell, the more UTZ cocoa we buy and the more our partner farmers benefit.
To help explain this, view the short slideshow below.
Raw cocoa beans from certified and non-certified farmers are collected by cocoa co-operative and kept separate. Nestlé works with non-certified farmers to get them certified in the future
The cocoa from UTZ CERTIFIED farms is then registered with UTZ CERTIFIED when it is sold by the co-operative
The cocoa is then transported to a Nestlé factory
On delivery to the Nestlé factory, the cocoa is verified with UTZ CERTIFIED to confirm exactly how much cocoa has been received
The certified and non-certified cocoa is then mixed and processed to produce cocoa mass and butter
Nestlé keeps track of the amount of UTZ cocoa needed and used for all labelled products, in line with UTZ CERTIFIED regulations
The UTZ cocoa mass and butter is then made into the Nestlé chocolate bars that you know and love
For more information visit www.utzcertified.org/cocoa
