The sustainability performance of the world’s leading chocolate companies is showing signs of improvement driven by new regulatory requirements.
This year’s ‘Chocolate Scorecard’, a collaboration between global civil society organisations and universities, identified the new EU regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) as a clear driver behind a rapid improvement in company scores relating to climate and deforestation in particular.
Tony’s Chocolonely topped the overall chart with a 91% score, followed by Halba, Cemoi and Ritter Sport. These all obtained ‘green egg’ status, reserved for those businesses leading the industry on policy and implementation.
In a blog post, Julian Oram, senior director of policy at Mighty Earth, a co-founder of the scorecard, highlighted major confectionary brands including Lindt, Ferrero, Mars and Nestlé for their significant progress in implementing policies on deforestation and climate.
Oram wrote that a clear driver behind this improvement has been the EUDR, which is due to come into force in January 2026. Under the law, companies producing goods derived from commodities such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy and rubber will not be able to sell on the EU market unless they can demonstrate that those products did not contribute to deforestation occurring after December 2020. In preparation, companies have advanced their monitoring to ensure traceability of cocoa to farm level, according to Oram.
Companies are also more willing than ever to engage on the issue of human rights, with 82% of large companies sharing their full child labour data for this year’s scorecard.
At the other end of the scale, Cadbury-owner Mondelez was singled out for special criticism for failing to respond to the survey. Starbucks also scored poorly across the board, while businesses such as General Mills, Hershey’s and Storck must do more to fully map their cocoa supply chains, Oram noted.
Now in its sixth year, the scorecard assesses commodity traders, chocolate manufacturers and retailers in relation to seven critical cocoa sustainability indicators. Companies are ranked on their efforts to ensure farm-level traceability of cocoa beans, eliminate child and forced labour, promote agroforestry, provide a living income to producers, improve the position of women, reduce pesticide applications on cocoa farms, and ensure cocoa purchases are deforestation-free.
Cocoa supply chains have come under significant pressure of late as extreme weather wreaks havoc on supplies, driving up prices.
