CocoaAction Brasil

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CocoaAction Brasil is a pioneering model for cocoa sustainability that helps private sector companies work together across the supply chain, speak with a unified voice with national and local governments, and learn together through a consolidated monitoring and evaluation system.

Leading members of Brazil’s chocolate and cocoa sector launched “CocoaAction Brasil” to address a range of sustainability issues in the country’s cocoa sector, in October 2018. CocoaAction Brasil works to find solutions that increase productivity, improve the quality of Brazil’s cocoa, including controlling pests and diseases, improve farmers’ living and working conditions, strengthen farmers’ organizations, and support sustainable forest-positive cocoa production systems.

CocoaAction Brasil priorities

Farmers

  • Productivity improvement
  • Cocoa quality improvement
  • Farm management improvement
  • Prevention of pests & diseases

Community

  • Better working and living conditions for cocoa growers
  • Strengthening of farmers’ organizations
  • Youth, gender, and family succession

Planet

  • Deforestation control & promotion of reforestation
  • Conservation and restoration of Areas of Permanent Preservation and Legal Reserves
  • Improvement of agroforestry systems

Enabling environment

  • Organization towards more efficiency
  • Access to credit & land legalization
  • Cocoa supply chain information management

All activities are implemented by engaging members and partners throughout the supply chain. CocoaAction Brasil has an estimated duration of five years, from 2018 to 2022. The goal is to leave a legacy of collaboration and collective action, so that the Brazilian cocoa sector continues to work together for long-lasting results in sustainability.

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8 Participating companies

Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Dengo, Harald, Mars Wrigley, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, and Olam.

Map of cocoa producing regions

Principal cocoa production areas (>65,000 tons)

  1. Bahia
  2. Pará

Areas with increasing production (>5,000 tons)

  1. Espírito Santo

Low production areas (<2,000 tons)

  1. Amazonas
  2. Mato Grosso
  3. Rondônia

Opportunities

Current opportunities in Brazilian cocoa include the country’s status as a leader in the areas of reforestation and biodiversity preservation by cocoa through the country’s agroforestry and cabruca production models. Recent developments in the sector in Pará also hold promise for modeling much higher farm-level productivity.

Challenges

Challenges noted are low productivity on smallholder farms that ranges from 200-500 kilograms per hectare, too few farmer organizations and low farmer incomes, pest and disease threats, in particular the devastating Frosty Pod Rot (Moniliophthora roreri), and a domestic supply gap that means Brazil must import approximately 70,000 tons of cocoa annually.

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Expertise and lessons learned

WCF initiated efforts that led to the creation of CocoaAction Brasil facilitate company implementation and measurement of the strategy, identify opportunities to lend expertise in policy discussions, fill resource gaps, and generate new insights and learnings to amplify CocoaAction’s impact.

CocoaAction Brasil benefits further from lessons learned through the ongoing implementation of a similar initiative also known as CocoaAction that has been tailored to address needs in the West African nations of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which are the world’s top two producers of cocoa.

CocoaAction Brasil is also drawing on the expertise of cocoa sector partners through a Technical Committee that includes Ceplac, Embrapa, Cocoa Innovation Center, agricultural extension agencies such as Emater-RO, Incaper, Emater-PA, Bahiater, and Empaer-MT, UTZ/Rainforest Alliance, AIPC, ABICAB, SENAR (National Rural Learning Service), and Brazilian representatives of the initiative’s chocolate and cocoa industry members.

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CocoaAction Brasil 1st annual cocoa forum 2018
Partners Government and third-party partners

Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Ministério da Indústria, Comércio Exterior e Serviços, Ministério da Integração Nacional, the Secretariats of Agriculture from the Brazilian states of Bahia, Pará, Amazonas, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, and Rondonia, MAPA’s Sectorial Cocoa Chamber, CNA (National Association of Growers), ABICAB – Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Chocolates, Amendoim e Balas, AIPC – Associação das Indústrias Processadoras de Cacau, and others.

  • Sustainably farmed cocoa pods in West Africa Sustainability, cocoa sustainability, sustainable cocoa, why is sustainability important, sustainability defined, sustainability movement, cocoa plant, cocoa bean, cacao, raw cacao, deforestation, what is deforestation cocoa bean cacao raw cacao cocoa farm brasil brazil cocoaaction

    Cabruca landscape in Bahia

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    Nursery with cocoa seedlings in Pará

  • Brazilian cocoa farmer next to cocoa tree, sustainable farming, sustainable cocoa

    Cocoa farmer in Brazil. Photo by Dengo.

  • Sustainably farmed cocoa pods in West Africa Sustainability, cocoa sustainability, sustainable cocoa, why is sustainability important, sustainability defined, sustainability movement, cocoa plant, cocoa bean, cacao, raw cacao, deforestation, what is deforestation Cocoa grown sustainably in an agroforestry system in Brazil

    Cocoa agroforestry system in Pará

  • Sustainable cocoa tree in Brazil

    Cocoa tree in Espírito Santo

  • Cocoa farmer near bag of sustainable cocoa beans in Brazil

    Cocoa farmer in Brazil. Photo by Dengo.

  • Sustainably farmed cocoa pods in West Africa Sustainability, cocoa sustainability, sustainable cocoa, why is sustainability important, sustainability defined, sustainability movement, cocoa plant, cocoa bean, cacao, raw cacao, deforestation, what is deforestation Recently harvested sustainable cocoa in Brazil

    Freshly harvested cocoa in Bahia

Annual Cocoa Forum

The Annual Cocoa Forum is a national and annual event organized by CocoaAction Brasil with the objective of sharing successful experiences and discussing solutions for the construction of a more sustainable cocoa sector with representatives from the Brazilian cocoa supply chain. The Forum has been held since 2018 and convenes supply chain stakeholders, specialists, and cocoa and chocolate associations and entities. The event covers topics such as sustainable production, cocoa growing and processing, and productivity.

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CocoaAction Brasil is committed to develop a true public-private partnership platform with the Brazilian government and has formed a National Committee to guide important decisions of cocoa sustainability in Brazil.

Related Resources

Next Cocoa & Forests Initiative