The Swiss Sustainable Cocoa Platform had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2020 together with the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) and the Belgian platform Beyond Chocolate. In January 2021, the Memorandum of Understanding was extended to include the Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO).
Together, the European initiatives aim to overcome the key challenges in the cocoa sector through close cooperation and joint action. These include the eradication of the worst forms of child labor, achieving a living income for the cocoa farmers and their families, improving the transparency and traceability in the cocoa supply chain and stopping deforestation linked to cocoa production.
The addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in January 2021 is a clear sign of strengthened cooperation and a next step towards more sustainability and transparency in the cocoa sector.