Cheers to a stellar year of making impact in cocoa

We’ve just launched our latest annual FAIR report – and with a bang! Our report measures and shares the progress we’ve made over the past year (2022/23) as we work towards ending exploitation in cocoa. And we’re super-duper proud to announce that we’ve had another choc-tastic year here at Tony’s, increasing farmers’ cocoa income by 51% in Côte d’Ivoire while reporting our largest revenue growth ever. All thanks to our Choco Fans, sharing our choc while sharing our story. Ready to dive into the highlights? Let’s gooo!  

boosting farmers’ cocoa income 

Uh-huh, you read that right: Ivorian farmers selling beans to Tony’s upped their cocoa income by a whoppin’ 51% last year. How? ’Cause we always pay the Living Income Reference Price (LIRP) for cocoa, which is higher than both the national farmgate price + the Fairtrade price combined and enables cocoa farmers to earn a living income. 

“Just us?” you ask. No way! All of our Mission Allies – aka very cool brands who also source cocoa via Tony’s Open Chain initiative – pay the LIRP. And if the whole industry followed suit, that could be a real game-changer.. 

In total, 17,740 farmers benefitted from these higher cocoa prices, which is 2,977 (20%) more than last year. Woo-hoo! 

driving down child labor 

Did you know that 1 in every 2 children in cocoa-growing households in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana is engaged in child labor? Yep, that’s the bitter truth of chocolate.. The sweet solution? Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles. Our tried-and-true rules for fairer choc prove time and again that our way of working works – and this year’s no exception.  

At 10.5%, the percentage of child labor at partner co-ops within Tony’s Open Chain is much lower than the industry average of 46.7%. And when you look at long-term partners (3+ years), the rate drops even further, to 4.4%. This shows the importance of long-term commitments, which is why we work with farmers for at least 5 years. ’Cause the longer we collaborate with co-ops, the more we see child labor go down. The proof’s in the pudding report. 

lowering our carbon footprint 

The primary driver of emissions linked to cocoa production is deforestation, aka clearing tropical forests for farming. Since January 2019 alone, 60,000 hectares of tropical forests have been cleared for cocoa production in cocoa-growing regions in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. 

’Cause our supply chain has been confirmed to be deforestation-free, our cocoa carbon footprint is already 87% lower in Ghana and 95% lower in Côte d’Ivoire than most other cocoa sold in the same region.. To go even further, we’ve set ourselves the maximum (42%) emission reduction target for 2030.  

going up, up, up 

As an impact company that makes chocolate, we’ll always lead with our impact work. But that doesn’t mean economic growth isn’t important, too. ’Cause more choc sold = more beans sourced = more impact.  

So how’s it all goin’? Pretty great, actually! We’ve increased our net revenue by 23% to €150.2m – the largest absolute revenue growth we’ve ever had (+28m). And we’ve got no plans to slow things down. 

welcoming even more Mission Allies 

Our team is getting bigger and bigger, babyyy! 6 new partners have joined us over the last year, bringing the grand total to 14, including Tony’s. Every single brand that comes aboard Tony’s Open Chain is committed to changing the cocoa industry, 1 chocolate bar, drink or protein shake at a time.  

And with HEMA + Jumbo joining in the Netherlands, all major Dutch grocery groups are now using 100% traceable and transparent cocoa! Now that’s what we call making a stellar impact..

evolving our promise 

In our fight against the 3 big problems in cocoa – lack of living income, child labor and deforestation – we’ve made lots of progress towards tackling all forms of exploitation in the cocoa supply chain using Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles. To bring to life our wider scope of work, we’re very (very) excited to introduce to you our broader impact promise: “Together, we’ll end exploitation in cocoa.” Building on our mission, this evolved statement covers all the work we do to end the biggest problems in cocoa while working as a rallying cry to build an industry-wide change coalition through Tony’s Open Chain. Heck yeah! 

celebrating you (yes you!) 

We couldn’t have made any of this impact without ya, so here’s a big cheers to you! Keep on sharing our choc + our story, and let’s make lots and lots more impact in 2024! What do you say.. Are you in? 

Psst.. Love figures, facts and fun? Read our annual FAIR report.