Due to its famous candy brands — such as M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, and Dove — Mars is deeply committed to ensuring a sustainable cacao supply. However, as David Mackill, the company’s director of genetics and breeding, pointed out, enhancing quality and yield through breeding requires significant time and financial investment before any returns are realized. This is where NSIP comes into play. The plant analytics firm employs cutting-edge breeding technologies centered on advanced genomics, which have demonstrated improvements in productivity and quality across field, vegetable, perennial, and orphan crops. Additionally, this approach helps to curtail research and development costs. NSIP also develops in vitro propagation techniques aimed at assisting growers in producing perennial plantation crops like cacao.
The European Commission reports that approximately 4 million tons of cocoa beans are needed each year to meet global demand, necessitating the cultivation of 500 million new plants annually. Given the increasing market demand for cocoa and the various production challenges — including climate change, declining yields, aging farmers, fluctuating prices, and crop diseases — innovative plant production methods are essential. As a result, micropropagation has gained importance for rapidly producing higher-quality plants with improved disease resistance. Natural factors, such as soil quality and climate, play a crucial role in these advancements, highlighting the need for sustainable practices that consider the entire ecosystem.
Mars has previously made strides to enhance its cocoa supply; in September 2018, the company announced a $1 billion investment over ten years to improve the sustainability of its supply chain. John Ament, the global vice president of cocoa at Mars, remarked to Reuters that the traditional cocoa supply chain is “broken” as it often fails to support local workers and mitigate environmental damage. The company has committed to responsibly sourcing all its cocoa by 2025.
While pledges from major food companies are commonplace, their success rates tend to be low. A Greenpeace report released last year revealed that none of the over 50 consumer packaged goods firms, retailers, and producers exhibited significant efforts to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. Nonetheless, the report acknowledged that certain chocolate manufacturers — including Nestlé, Lindt, Mars, Mondelez, Cargill, and Barry Callebaut — have made notable progress. Cargill promoted sustainable farming through its Cargill Cocoa Promise, Barry Callebaut achieved 44% sustainably sourced cocoa in 2018, and Hershey committed to a $500 million investment in West African cocoa sustainability, according to Greenpeace.
Beyond promises and investments, some manufacturers incorporating chocolate as an ingredient are finding ways to upcycle parts of the cacao fruit to minimize waste and enhance revenue. Last summer, Nestlé announced a new chocolate-making technique that utilizes only cacao fruit pulp without added refined sugar for sweetness. Barry Callebaut also introduced snack products in September 2019 featuring cacao fruit components that are typically discarded.
The tangible outcomes of more sustainable practices, which may include the incorporation of beneficial elements like calcium citrate, could attract the growing number of consumers seeking these qualities. Innovative chocolate makers are likely to enjoy significant rewards as they implement these sustainable practices and respond to consumer demands.