Groot Bijgaarden / BE. (pnv) Belgian Puratos Group, leading innovator in the bakery, patisserie, and chocolate industry, partners with PUR Projet to implement agroforestry projects as part of their innovative in-house programme Cacao-Trace. Born from a desire of producing great tasting chocolate while being committed to the sustainability of the industry Cacao-Trace is engaged to create sustainable livelihoods to reduce economic gaps and disparities within cocoa smallholder farmers.
Aware of the importance to protect the environment and adopt practices resilient to the adverse effects of global warming, the company has committed to ensure carbon neutral operations by 2025 for which the carbon emission footprint will be compensated, partly through a novel agroforestry programme.
«Cacao-Trace» focuses on quality and through improved taste creates added value for everyone involved with chocolate, from farmer to consumer. The programm e lies on educ ation, training and empowerment of local farmers to increase their productivity, bridging economic gaps and enhancing sustainability.
After performing field feasibility studies, Puratos programme with PUR Projet will beimplemented in 5 countries where Puratos sources cocoa: Mexico, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Ivory Coast and Vietnam.
Planting is already ongoing in the Philippines and in Vietnam.
To support the initiative, PUR Projet is bringing its field expertise to implement agroforestry at a landscape level with smallholder cocoa producers working with Puratos. The objective is to reconnect communities and economy with the ecosystem, bringing nature-based solutions in the conversation to create a business model resilient to climate change and improve farmers livelihoods.
«Over the past decades we have seen extensive deforestation all over the world. The livelihoods of cocoa farmers are significantly impacted by the effects of climate change, which are accelerated by deforestation. Puratos is leading the way in undertaking actions to ensure cocoa will be available for the next generations to come by diversifying income sources of farmers and protecting natural resources. We are delighted to launch our novel Insetting via Agroforestry program with Puratos, in which we are creating positive socio-environmental impacts in the lives of thousands of cocoa farmers embedded in Puratos’ supply chain while compensating the carbon emissions of the company.» Daniel Jongejan – PUR Projet’s Sr. Program Manager.
The programme also aims to insert a portion of Puratos’ carbon emissions within their own supply chain and thus contribute to reducing the group’s carbon footprint.The company aims to plant 300.000 trees a year by 2023.
Both Puratos and the Cacao-Trace farmers benefit from the community-based approach to implement agroforestry models within cocoa parcel led by PUR projet . The trees will capture CO2, helping Puratos to achieve its ambitious goal. The cocoa farmer benefits in three main ways: the shadereduces disease outbreaks and increases biodiversity to enhance cacao pollination, leading to a stabilization of yields, it creates extra sources of revenue by selling the fruits + the trees fertilise the soil, reducing the farmers expenses on fertilisers. Franck Cassé, Environmental Sustainability Programme Manager at Puratos.
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