巧克力是受所有文化和年龄群体喜爱的食品。现代的消费者日渐讲究食品原料的质量。因此，高品质的巧克力市场需求一直居高不下，贴着产地鉴定标签的巧克力更是受到了越来越多消费者的追捧。这对巧克力而言是好事。
但坏消息是，巧克力的主要原料可可豆的产量却正在面临供不应求的挑战。可可种植产能不佳的原因包括：农户的贫困、树林的老化、气候的变化和日趋贫瘠的土壤。这就是世界前三大可可原产国科特迪瓦、加纳及印度尼西亚目前所处的状况，而这三个国家的可可总产量占了世界可可豆总产量的三分之二以上。如果我们还想在二十年后继续享用巧克力，那我们必须一起努力，在整个巧克力与可可价值链上进行改革，扭转巧克力供应不足的局面。
在印度尼西亚，种植可可树所面临的困难已普遍存在，这对可可农户来说早已不新鲜。可可在印度尼西亚是排列在油棕榈树、椰子和橡胶之后的第四大主要农产物，可它的产量在过去的10年里持续下跌，令人担忧。当地小农没有足够的资金应对困难或改进可可树的农耕方式，使得处在贫困边缘的小农数量不断增加。这也遗憾地导致很多可可农户转至耕种橡胶和棕榈油，从而进一步加剧了该国可可产量递减。
印度尼西亚主要的可可种植园位于苏拉威西岛和苏门答腊岛两区，约一百六十万户小农在此耕作，那里大多数的种植园占地均小于1公顷。种植可可的土地从之前报道的一百五十万公顷左右缩减到现在的一百万公顷以下，即使如此，印度尼西亚可可农业的蓬勃发展仍需依赖于小农耕作的成功。
多年来，一般小农均只能用一公顷的土地收获500-700公斤的可可豆。这其实是个严重土地利用不足的问题。在优良的情况下，一公顷土壤应该可以收获1,500-2,000公斤可可豆。土地利用不足的原因何在？答案是生产力差的可可树。一般的可可树要２５年之后停止结果，尽管可可树的寿命还要更长。印度尼西亚大多数的可可树于1980-1990年种植，至今为止还没有任何重植方案出台，来减少可可树老化所带来的影响。
尽管如此，印度尼西亚对巧克力制造商来说仍是一个很重要的国家。在过去的十年里，许多巧克力企业已开始与供应商、政府和非政府机构协同合作，寻找可以真正解决能满足可可农民社区迫切需求的解决方案。
作为可可与巧克力产品的国际龙头制造商，百乐嘉利宝也很关注印度尼西亚可可供应链的问题。为了我们客户的利益，百乐嘉利宝承诺将可持续巧克力项目作为重中之重。由于目前小农仍然是印度尼西亚可可产业最大的供应者，我们也致力于成立有序的小农社区体系。
印度尼西亚可可农户面临的这些独特而又迫切的问题促使了各种不同组织的成立，其中有可可可持续发展伙伴联盟 (Cocoa Sustainability Partnership 简称CSP) 。CSP是印度尼西亚可可协会 (IndonesianCocoa Association 简称ASKINDO)、印度尼西亚可可农户协会(Indonesian Cocoa FarmersAssociation 简称APKAI)、玛氏巧克力和瑞士技术开发基金会 (SwissContact)的合作组织。CSP的使命包括：理顺可可产业所有围绕可持续可可所做的行动体系和商定可以使可持续可可不断向前推进的最佳行动方案。其他许多工业计划如嘉吉的Cocoa Promise （可可承诺）、亿滋的Cocoa Life（可可生活）和雀巢的Cocoa Plan（可可计划）也把可可农户放在印度尼西亚可持续可可工作中的核心位置。
今天，百乐嘉利宝在印度尼西亚的策略是请经过培训的农田专家为普通的可可农户提供实地培训。这些农田专家精通农林生产，为农户示范优良的农耕方式，提供专业的指导，如剪枝、移植、重植、防治害虫与管理疾病等，使他们具备可以应对在印度尼西亚种植可可树所特有的挑战。不断努力地与农户建立良好关系赢得农户的信赖，以及有效的教育课程，提高了农业生产力，从而提高了可可农户的收入和生活水平。
为了接近可可农户和发展可可豆可追溯性体系，提升可可豆的质量和采购方式，百乐嘉利宝在印度尼西亚的战略位置上建立了可可豆收集站、学习中心和附有克隆园的苗圃。百乐嘉利宝希望能与更多的农户群体建立起长期的合作关系。由于单一的可可农户所持的可可豆售量很少，百乐嘉利宝实施了多套合作和支持的方案，通过集体营销法，提高可可豆价格的稳度性，而可可农户从中也能获取更高的盈利。来源于印度尼西亚这些农户的可持续可可供应量在过去的三年里稳步上升。
借着这一势头，百乐嘉利宝今年推出了永远的巧克力。把可持续巧克力作为整个巧克力工业的标准。我们为自己设定了四个宏伟目标：在2025年之前，童工彻底从我们的供应链中消失，协助50万名可可农户摆脱贫困，碳排放及环保指标趋优，所有产品来源于可持续原料。为了创造更公平的巧克力供应链和稳固未来的巧克力原料来源，我们决定挑战可可可持续性供应链中面临的所有困难。百乐嘉利宝承诺每年通过透明和可衡量的方式发布永远的巧克力四大目标的实现进度，以此促使大家积极地寻找充满创意的解决方案。
所以，我们会继续推广印度尼西亚可可可持续项目，进一步加强对可可农户社群的正面影响。该项目的推广将会在四年内使接受过良好农耕培训的可可农户数量从现在的两万名升至五万名。另外，我们也计划在2017年底前把农学家与农田员工的总数翻倍至过百名。还有，以每年交付接近一百万个可可树苗的目标，我们将会开发50个可可苗圃。最后，我们将会把可持续可可的活动拓展到苏拉威西岛和苏门答腊之外的印度尼西亚地区。
达成这些宏伟的目标不能仅靠一个组织的力量。因此，我们需要号召工业伙伴、政府部门、非政府组织和世界各地的巧克力爱好者一同致力于此运动。毕竟，可持续巧克力不仅是业内承诺与投入，同样也依赖于政府环境政策的实施，立法体系的加强，非政府组织传播意识的增强和消费者对可持续产品的选择。
永远的巧克力是一个公开的邀请——请与我们一同找寻可持续解决方案，把可持续巧克力当作一切的标准。通过大家的共同努力，我们将使永远的巧克力成为现实！
英文原文：
OpinionPiece for Asia Food Journal
Securing the future of ourcocoa farmers for the growth of chocolate
By: Ben De Schryver, President, Asia Pacific, Barry Callebaut
Chocolate is enjoyed across cultures andgenerations. With growing market sophistication, demand for premium chocolateis at an all-time high, reflecting increasing consumer demand for products thatidentify the source of their cocoa beans. This is the good news.
The bad news is that the production of cocoa,which is the main ingredient of chocolate, is struggling to keep up withdemand. Productivity in cocoa farming is plagued by various issues such asfarmer poverty, ageing trees, climate change and nutrient depleted soils. Thisis the present condition of origin countries Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia- the three largest cocoa producers in the world. They alone account for morethan two thirds of the world’s total cocoa output. If we want to enjoy chocolate20 years from now, we will need to work together to revolutionize the entirechocolate and cocoa value chain and veer away from an impending “chocolatedeficit”.
In Indonesia, the challenges prevalent forcocoa farmers are not new. While cocoa is Indonesia’s fourth crop in areaplanted after oil palm, coconut and rubber, production has been on an alarmingdownward trend in the last 10 years. The smallholder farmers do not have thefinances to combat the challenges and revamp their approach to cocoa farming whichleaves an increasing number of cocoa farmers at borderline poverty. Regrettably,amidst these struggles, many farmers in Indonesia have since left cocoa farmingto produce rubber or palm oil. This further exacerbates the country’s cocoaproduction decline.
The vast majority of cocoa plantations in Indonesia– found mainly in Sulawesi and Sumatra – are cultivated by an estimated 1.6million smallholder farmers. The majority of these farms are small and lessthan 1 ha. What was reported to be an area of about 1.5 million ha of cocoa farmingland in the past has now led to a decline of just less than 1 million ha. Still, successful smallholder cultivation iscentral and key to a thriving Indonesian cocoa sector.
For many years the average active Indonesiancocoa farmer has only been able to manage a harvest of between 500 to 700 kg ofcocoa beans per hectare; which is a profound underutilization of the land’s trueyield potential (1,500 to 2,000 kg should be achievable under optimal conditions).This is largely due to poor tree productivity. The average cacao tree stopsbearing fruit after 25 years, though it can live for much longer. Most of thecacao trees in Indonesia were planted in the 1980s to 1990s and ever since thenthere has not been a massive, serious replanting program to mitigate the presentissue of ageing trees.
Despite these setbacks, Indonesia remains to bean important country for all chocolate manufacturers. In the last decade, manyplayers in the industry have reached out to work together with suppliers, governmentand non-governmental organizations to find real solutions to meet the pressing needsof the cocoa farmer communities.
As aleading global manufacturer of cocoa and chocolate products, Barry Callebaut alsohas a strong interest in resolving the problems of the cocoa supply chain inIndonesia. Barry Callebaut is committed to sustainability since this is an issueof high priority for our customers. We are also committed to the inclusion oforganized smallholder farmers, since they by far supply the largest portion ofcocoa production in Indonesia.
The pressing issues unique to Indonesian cocoafarmers led to the establishment of various initiatives such as the CocoaSustainability Partnership (CSP) which involved the Indonesian CocoaAssociation (ASKINDO), Indonesian Cocoa Farmers Association (APKAI), Mars andSwissContact aimed to streamline the widespread sustainability efforts acrossthe cocoa sector and to agree on Best Practices to drive sustainability forwardtogether. Many other industry-led programs such as Cargill Cocoa Promise,Mondelez’s Cocoa Life, and Nestle’s Cocoa Plan also placed cocoa farmers at thecore of their sustainability efforts in Indonesia.
Today, the Barry Callebaut strategy inIndonesia is to have trained field facilitators (who act as the extensionagents knowledgeable on agroforestry production systems) on the ground teachingand demonstrating good agricultural practices to farmer communities. Educatingthe cocoa farmers with the technical know-hows, such as in pruning, grafting,replanting, pest control and disease management, empowers them to betternavigate the unique challenges of cocoa farming in Indonesia. Persistent efforts to build relationships and win the trust ofthese farmers coupled with effective education has led to an increase in crop productivity, which organically resultsin higher incomes and better livelihoods.
Barry Callebaut also has collection stations, learningcenters and nurseries with clone gardens at strategic locations in Indonesia inorder to get closer to these farmers and develop traceability, quality and certifiedcocoa bean procurement. Barry Callebaut wantsto engage and establish long-term relations with as many farmer groups aspossible. Since Barry Callebaut cannot buy from individual farmers because oflow volumes, several modes of cooperation and support have been developed toensure farmers get more profit through collective marketing and prices are morestable. The total volume of sustainable cocoa sourced from these cocoa farmersin Indonesia has been at a steady increase in the last 3 years.
Riding on this momentum, we recently launchedForever Chocolate, an ambition for the entire chocolate industry to makesustainable chocolate the norm. We haveset ourselves four ambitious targets that we want to achieve by 2025: eradicatechild labor from our supply chain, lift over 500,000 cocoa farmers out ofpoverty, become carbon and forest positive and use only 100% sustainableingredients in all of our products. Bytackling the biggest sustainability challenges in the cocoa supply chain, wenot only want to create a more equitable chocolate supply chain, but we alsowant to secure the future supply of the required ingredients for chocolate. Byannually reporting our progress against these targets in a transparent andmeasurable way, we hope to unleash the sense of urgency required to find thecreative solutions this cause deserves.
This means that we will continue to expand oursustainability program in Indonesia to further scale impact and intensifychange in cocoa communities. The expansion of the program will increase thenumber of Indonesian farmers trained in good agricultural practices from 20,000to 50,000 in the next four years, double the number of our agronomist and fieldstaff into the hundreds by the end of 2017, develop 50 cocoa nurseries todeliver nearly 1 million seedlings per year and extend activities to newterritories beyond Sulawesi and Sumatra.
The vision is too big for any organizationalone. Together with our industrypartners we have to start a movement that also includes governments, NGOs and,last but not least, chocolate lovers around the world. After all, sustainablechocolate is as much about governments creating and enabling policy environmentand enforcing legislation, NGOs creating awareness and consumers makingsustainable choices, as it is about industry commitment and investment.
Forever Chocolate is an open invitation to workwith us in finding the solutions to making sustainable chocolate the norm. Togetherwe can make Forever Chocolate a reality.
