The International Cocoa Initiative has released its 2019 Annual Report, showing progress from last year but also examining the results of longer-running efforts to tackle child labor.

Participating companies have mapped more than one million farms in their direct supply chain and distributed more than 4 million trees to farmers to establish agroforestry systems.

Barry Callebaut has announced that in fiscal year 2018/19 it sourced 51 percent of its ingredients sustainably, up from 44 percent the previous year.

The United Nations Development Programme and the FairChain Foundation have created The Other Bar, a chocolate bar that challenges consumers to take direct action against poverty.

Barry Callebaut Group has launched two varieties of chocolate sweetened with cacaofruit as part of its mission to advance cocoa sustainability and drive innovation in the category.

Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire have suspended pre-sales of the 2020-2021 season cocoa crop as the governments work to institute a base price for cocoa from those countries.

A panel highlighting the launch of a Lutheran World Relief initiative designed to assist small-scale cocoa and coffee farmers in Latin America is set for the Fine Chocolate Industry Association’s (FCIA) “Elevate Chocolate” event next month.

The Hershey Co. has released action plans against deforestation under the company’s commitments as a founding member of the Cocoa & Forest Initiative. 

Guittard Chocolate Co., as part of its Cultivate Better sustainability platform, has expanded its flavor quality work in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Indonesia.

Fairtrade International is raising the prices it will pay for conventional and organic cocoa next fall after world cocoa prices dropped by more than a third last year.