While manufacturers have made progress on improving transparency and accountability along their cocoa supply chains, global retailers are still falling short, according to a new report by Be Slavery Free.
The seventh edition of the Chocolate Scorecard assessed the performance of 49 firms across areas such as traceability, living income, child and forced labour, deforestation, agroforestry, pesticides, gender and health.
It uncovered ‘particularly evident’ gaps in the supply chains of retailers’ own-brand chocolate products, which in turn contributes to ‘uneven progress’ across the sector as a whole.
Ethical choices
“Consumers increasingly want to make ethical choices, but they depend on retailers to make those choices possible through transparency and responsible sourcing,” commented Stephanie Perkiss, associated professor at the University of Wollongong (UOW), who sits on Be Slavery Free’s data ethics and integrity committee.
“This year’s Scorecard shows that progress is happening, but it is inconsistent, and too often accountability is fragmented.”
Perkiss, who recently co-authored the report Cocoa Sustainability for Retailers, added that the lack of accountability in the retail sector is at odds with consumer interaction with the category.
“During occasions like Mother’s Day, consumers buy chocolate as a gesture of care and generosity, but behind that gift can be complex supply chains that don’t always reflect those values,” she noted.
Cocoa communities
According to the Chocolate Scorecard, improved monitoring along cocoa supply chains has not yet translated into broader improvements in outcomes for cocoa-growing communities. While many firms have improved their understanding of supply chain conditions, challenges remain in converting that knowledge into fairer conditions for farmers and more sustainable production systems.
Allied to the publication of the Chocolate Scorecard, a Retail Stayers Award was presented to eight retailers that have consistently participated in the review process over several years. Read more here.
