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.

Dutch confectionery company Tony’s Chocolonely, retailer Albert Heijn and chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut have partnered to work toward ending child labor and modern slavery in the chocolate industry.

The cocoa industry made big promises for sustainable cocoa that mostly come due in 2020, but now that the deadline is just a little more than a year away, many of those companies are shifting the timeline. 

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) has appointed former EU ambassador Michel Arrion as its new executive director.

Madagascar vanilla crops this year are of higher quality and similar in size to recent years but prices remain difficult to predict, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas concluded its its recent crop report.

Mondelēz International continues to make progress under its Impact for Growth platform, designed to push the company to make achievements in sustainability, health and safety by 2020.

Mars, Inc. and the Rainforest Alliance, in partnership with Touton and the Grameen Foundation, have launched in Ghana SAT4Farming, an initiative using digital technology and satellite imagery to guide farmers over a seven-year period.