Responsibility in the supply chain

For decades, Toms Confectionary Group has imported most of its cocoa beans from Ghana. As a reaction to a major debate on child labour in the cocoa industry, Toms Confectionary Group chose to make social responsibility a strategic focus area in 2005. This way, cocoa beans and their origins where brought into focus.

Earlier on, it was not possible to trace which villages the cocoa beans originated from. The cocoa was dispatched from the villages in labelled sacks, but when it got to the harbour to be exported, the sacks were slit open and all the cocoa was mixed together. This is how it still is with almost all cocoa sold from Ghana, but not for Toms Confectionary Group who got the opportunity to trace the cocoa the company buys.

Traceable cocoa
As of 2009, all cocoa that Toms Confectionary Group uses is traceable. This came to be after an intense working process and a dialogue with the local operators. This way, Toms Confectionary Group got the opportunity to use an internal traceability system in three selected districts from where Toms is now buying all cocoa. This means that if local Ghanian farmers in these three districts choose to sell their cocoa to the partners of Toms Confectionary Group, the sack will be labelled an held separately both during quality control, in the warehouse, and when they are exported to Toms Confectionary Group’s factory in Ballerup.

Toms Confectionary Group pays an additional price for this traceability. Half of the added price goes to covering the expenses of ensuring the traceability. The other half goes directly to a foundation investing in the three Ghanian districts. This could be social investments in the form of wells, malaria nets or other needs expressed by the farmers. At the same time, the foundation also supports education of the farmers, so they can improve their growing of cocoa and increase the harvest, and thus also increase their basis of income – just like the education helps ensuring that the cultivation is as sustainable as possible.

Projects
Since 2007, Toms Confectionary Group has had a project in cooperation with the Danish company Danida, the Danish NGO IBIS, and the Ghanian research institution, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG). The project with IBIS helped to ensure that 15,000 children in the cocoa areas got a qualitative improvement of their education. For instance, this was in the form of education of teachers, support to parents’ committees and a strengthening of the local school structures. Concurrently, Toms Confectionary Group had a project with CRIG on introduction of a new fermentation method. By low-technology changes, the method has improved both the quality of the cocoa, ensured a better working environment for the farmers and at the same time the method protects the immediate environment in the rainforest.