Should the Orangutans Drum in Celebration of Darrel Lea's chocolates?
Screen capture of orangutan playing drums video by Darrel Lea
Update November, 2022
Trase Insights report on cocoa challenges chocolate brands on sustainability.
-How will this impact brands like Darrell Lea which claim that their source of cocoa is 100% sustainable?
"Commodity traders Cargill, Olam, Barry Callebaut and Touton are exposed to high levels of deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire, where 2.4 million hectares of forest has been cleared in the past two decades primarily to produce cocoa for Europe’s chocolate manufacturers.
World leaders are gathering in Egypt for the COP27 climate conference dubbed the ‘African COP’. A key theme is the role of agriculture in reducing emissions, adapting to climate change and delivering food security on the continent.
In the west African country of Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa production is the leading cause of deforestation. Between 2000 and 2019, 2.4 million hectares (Mha) of forest was replaced by cocoa plantations – an area almost the size of Rwanda – according to new analysis by Trase and its partners at UCLouvain. It represents 45% of the total deforestation and forest degradation in the country.
In 2019, 25% of the cocoa production area in Côte d'Ivoire was located within ‘protected’ areas and forest reserves as classified by local environmental legislation. Weak governance means these laws are rarely enforced". TraseInsights
Further reading on the topic includes this report on Cabidigitallibrary, Transparency, Traceability And Deforestation In The Ivorian Cocoa Supply Chain which concluded:
"that the majority of cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire are neither traceable nor transparently sourced. The informal sector dominates, with a high share of cocoa being indirectly sourced. Companies do not know where this cocoa originates from and are therefore incapable of evaluating if it is tied to sustainability issues, including deforestation or child labor, and even less capable of acting to improve them."
These new reports show that the Darrell Lea claim of using 100% sustainable cocoa is misleading. Mind you, this false marketing claim may have been approved by Cocoa Horizons, which is owned by Barry Callebaut. The endorsement may have had Mass Balance cocoa in mind but this is completely unacceptable when the social-environmental impacts of cocoa are examined.
Deforestation aside, the most recent report on child labor in the cocoa industry showed that some 1.5 million children are working in hazardous conditions in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.
As for great apes, the decimation of protected areas and extirpation of wildlife species should be cause for concern in any Mass Balance supply of cocoa.
This is not to suggest that Darrell Lea should ban cocoa from West Africa but to say that it should remove its claim to be using 100% sustainable cocoa unless, the company can prove, that its purchases of cocoa can be traced back to the farms where they were grown.
Earlier report on Darrell Lea continues below
Trase Insights report on cocoa challenges chocolate brands on sustainability.
-How will this impact brands like Darrell Lea which claim that their source of cocoa is 100% sustainable?
"Commodity traders Cargill, Olam, Barry Callebaut and Touton are exposed to high levels of deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire, where 2.4 million hectares of forest has been cleared in the past two decades primarily to produce cocoa for Europe’s chocolate manufacturers.
World leaders are gathering in Egypt for the COP27 climate conference dubbed the ‘African COP’. A key theme is the role of agriculture in reducing emissions, adapting to climate change and delivering food security on the continent.
In the west African country of Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa production is the leading cause of deforestation. Between 2000 and 2019, 2.4 million hectares (Mha) of forest was replaced by cocoa plantations – an area almost the size of Rwanda – according to new analysis by Trase and its partners at UCLouvain. It represents 45% of the total deforestation and forest degradation in the country.
In 2019, 25% of the cocoa production area in Côte d'Ivoire was located within ‘protected’ areas and forest reserves as classified by local environmental legislation. Weak governance means these laws are rarely enforced". TraseInsights
Further reading on the topic includes this report on Cabidigitallibrary, Transparency, Traceability And Deforestation In The Ivorian Cocoa Supply Chain which concluded:
"that the majority of cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire are neither traceable nor transparently sourced. The informal sector dominates, with a high share of cocoa being indirectly sourced. Companies do not know where this cocoa originates from and are therefore incapable of evaluating if it is tied to sustainability issues, including deforestation or child labor, and even less capable of acting to improve them."
These new reports show that the Darrell Lea claim of using 100% sustainable cocoa is misleading. Mind you, this false marketing claim may have been approved by Cocoa Horizons, which is owned by Barry Callebaut. The endorsement may have had Mass Balance cocoa in mind but this is completely unacceptable when the social-environmental impacts of cocoa are examined.
Deforestation aside, the most recent report on child labor in the cocoa industry showed that some 1.5 million children are working in hazardous conditions in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.
As for great apes, the decimation of protected areas and extirpation of wildlife species should be cause for concern in any Mass Balance supply of cocoa.
This is not to suggest that Darrell Lea should ban cocoa from West Africa but to say that it should remove its claim to be using 100% sustainable cocoa unless, the company can prove, that its purchases of cocoa can be traced back to the farms where they were grown.
Earlier report on Darrell Lea continues below
Darrell Lea, the Australian brand which manufactures chocolates and licorice announced that it has removed palm oil from its chocolates.
The move was reviewed by Eco Business with contributing statements from a spokesperson for a palm oil company who lamented the move from a certified product in palm oil, to an uncertified replacement in sunflower oil.
Darrel Lea in trying to capture consumer sentiment copied the Iceland Supermarket marketing ploy and published its own cutesy animated video of an orangutan playing drums. The palm oil free campaign has received limited coverage at the time of this writing but it did get enough attention to beg the question of a palm oil replacement which travels thousands of miles to Darrel Lea factories.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to orangutans and much of this can be blamed on fossil fuels which must have powered the transport to get sunflower oil from Europe to Australia.
Darrel Lea could have reduced the emissions of its vegetable oil by buying certified palm oil from neighboring countries in Malaysia or Indonesia but climate change and its threat to orangutans is a connection that most people fail to see. By comparison, declaring itself as palm oil free and showing a video of an orangutan playing drums is a no-brainer for marketing gimmicks.
Darrel Lea has not said anything publicly about its replacement for palm oil or whether it knew that climate change is a threat to orangutans. The company did prepare itself for questions on its sources for cacao, the main ingredient in its chocolates by emphasizing that it gets its main ingredient, cocoa, from “Cocoa Horizons”
“We are proud to announce we have partnered with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation to source sustainable cocoa for our entire range of chocolate products.
They are an independent, not for profit organisation that runs sustainability programs focused on social & environmental initiatives that benefit cocoa farmers, their families & the communities they live in.”
The website for Darrel Lea Australia pounds on this message of the corporate engagement with non-profits and “their work with cocoa farmers, their families and communities they live in” with extra blurbs like:
“Behind the chocolate you love, there are tireless farmers who grow and produce the cocoa that makes it so special. But life for these farmers can often be a struggle from harvest to harvest. Through unfair trading conditions with big chocolate manufacturers,(underscored by CSPO Watch) they have too few opportunities to take care of their families and their communities.
Darrell Lea knew this had to change.”
The move was reviewed by Eco Business with contributing statements from a spokesperson for a palm oil company who lamented the move from a certified product in palm oil, to an uncertified replacement in sunflower oil.
Darrel Lea in trying to capture consumer sentiment copied the Iceland Supermarket marketing ploy and published its own cutesy animated video of an orangutan playing drums. The palm oil free campaign has received limited coverage at the time of this writing but it did get enough attention to beg the question of a palm oil replacement which travels thousands of miles to Darrel Lea factories.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to orangutans and much of this can be blamed on fossil fuels which must have powered the transport to get sunflower oil from Europe to Australia.
Darrel Lea could have reduced the emissions of its vegetable oil by buying certified palm oil from neighboring countries in Malaysia or Indonesia but climate change and its threat to orangutans is a connection that most people fail to see. By comparison, declaring itself as palm oil free and showing a video of an orangutan playing drums is a no-brainer for marketing gimmicks.
Darrel Lea has not said anything publicly about its replacement for palm oil or whether it knew that climate change is a threat to orangutans. The company did prepare itself for questions on its sources for cacao, the main ingredient in its chocolates by emphasizing that it gets its main ingredient, cocoa, from “Cocoa Horizons”
“We are proud to announce we have partnered with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation to source sustainable cocoa for our entire range of chocolate products.
They are an independent, not for profit organisation that runs sustainability programs focused on social & environmental initiatives that benefit cocoa farmers, their families & the communities they live in.”
The website for Darrel Lea Australia pounds on this message of the corporate engagement with non-profits and “their work with cocoa farmers, their families and communities they live in” with extra blurbs like:
“Behind the chocolate you love, there are tireless farmers who grow and produce the cocoa that makes it so special. But life for these farmers can often be a struggle from harvest to harvest. Through unfair trading conditions with big chocolate manufacturers,(underscored by CSPO Watch) they have too few opportunities to take care of their families and their communities.
Darrell Lea knew this had to change.”
This may come as a shock to Darrel Lea if they find out that The Cocoa Horizons Foundation was created by Barry Callebaut to “help shape a sustainable future for cocoa and chocolate.”
Barry Callebaut is one the biggest players in the cocoa industry globally
To be fair, credit should be given where it is due. Barry Callebaut is addressing a problem which is bigger than orangutans which is child labor in cocoa. Child labor for a consumer product whose main sales drivers are children, is obviously a greater priority than orangutans. As this damning report on cocoa wrote:
“Chocolate is, for most of us, a guilty pleasure. We know we probably shouldn’t but, hey, it’s been a long day. Yet for thousands of children in the cocoa fields of West Africa, chocolate is a source not of pleasure but of hard, sometimes hazardous, work. The link between child labour and chocolate production is, lamentably, a long-standing one.”
More recent reports from Barry Callebaut stated that:
“Swiss cocoa products maker Barry Callebaut said that 26% of the farmer groups from which it sourced products in 2018/2019 had programmes to prevent child labour, more than double the figure from the previous year.”
It is not known at this time, whether the cocoa for Darrel Lea’s chocolates come from the 26% of farmer groups who have “programmes to prevent child labour.”
What is also not known is whether the cocoa for Darrel Lea’s chocolates come from the deforestation of Africa. In the time it took Darrel Lea to formulate a palm oil free chocolate bar, they should have noted the connection between cocoa and deforestation. The concerns of the cocoa industry was covered in a comprehensive report on cocoa and deforestation by Confectionery News:
“Twelve major players in cocoa and chocolate earlier this year united with public sector partners under the banner ‘Cocoa & Forests Initiative’, aiming to eradicate cocoa deforestation. The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) member companies in March issued a joint statement of intent to end deforestation and forest degradation via the platform, in partnership with the Prince's International Sustainability Unit (ISU) and The Sustainable Trade Initiative”
The same debates on poverty alleviation, illegal deforestation by small farmers have gone on for years in the palm oil industry so what drove Darrel Lea to stop using palm oil instead of cocoa? Shouldn’t African primates whose habitats have been destroyed by cocoa receive the same level of care from Darrel Lea? Should the orangutans indeed bang their drums to cheer on Darrel Lea chocolates when 1.7 million acres of orangutan, tiger and rhino habitats were cleared for cocoa in Indonesia between 1988 and 2007 according to Mighty Earth?
There are no easy solutions for sustainable foods in an ever-growing human population. The simplistic option is of course the 100 mile diet where consumers eat only what can be grown within a 100 mile radius of the market. If Darrel Lea really cared about orangutans, the company would have to stop selling chocolates and focus on its licorice range which has a closer shot at being sustainable and orangutan friendly.
Published September 2020, CSPO Watch
Barry Callebaut is one the biggest players in the cocoa industry globally
To be fair, credit should be given where it is due. Barry Callebaut is addressing a problem which is bigger than orangutans which is child labor in cocoa. Child labor for a consumer product whose main sales drivers are children, is obviously a greater priority than orangutans. As this damning report on cocoa wrote:
“Chocolate is, for most of us, a guilty pleasure. We know we probably shouldn’t but, hey, it’s been a long day. Yet for thousands of children in the cocoa fields of West Africa, chocolate is a source not of pleasure but of hard, sometimes hazardous, work. The link between child labour and chocolate production is, lamentably, a long-standing one.”
More recent reports from Barry Callebaut stated that:
“Swiss cocoa products maker Barry Callebaut said that 26% of the farmer groups from which it sourced products in 2018/2019 had programmes to prevent child labour, more than double the figure from the previous year.”
It is not known at this time, whether the cocoa for Darrel Lea’s chocolates come from the 26% of farmer groups who have “programmes to prevent child labour.”
What is also not known is whether the cocoa for Darrel Lea’s chocolates come from the deforestation of Africa. In the time it took Darrel Lea to formulate a palm oil free chocolate bar, they should have noted the connection between cocoa and deforestation. The concerns of the cocoa industry was covered in a comprehensive report on cocoa and deforestation by Confectionery News:
“Twelve major players in cocoa and chocolate earlier this year united with public sector partners under the banner ‘Cocoa & Forests Initiative’, aiming to eradicate cocoa deforestation. The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) member companies in March issued a joint statement of intent to end deforestation and forest degradation via the platform, in partnership with the Prince's International Sustainability Unit (ISU) and The Sustainable Trade Initiative”
The same debates on poverty alleviation, illegal deforestation by small farmers have gone on for years in the palm oil industry so what drove Darrel Lea to stop using palm oil instead of cocoa? Shouldn’t African primates whose habitats have been destroyed by cocoa receive the same level of care from Darrel Lea? Should the orangutans indeed bang their drums to cheer on Darrel Lea chocolates when 1.7 million acres of orangutan, tiger and rhino habitats were cleared for cocoa in Indonesia between 1988 and 2007 according to Mighty Earth?
There are no easy solutions for sustainable foods in an ever-growing human population. The simplistic option is of course the 100 mile diet where consumers eat only what can be grown within a 100 mile radius of the market. If Darrel Lea really cared about orangutans, the company would have to stop selling chocolates and focus on its licorice range which has a closer shot at being sustainable and orangutan friendly.
Published September 2020, CSPO Watch
Update October 27, 2020. The RSPO has terminated Darrel Lea's membership
This may affect Darrel Lea's performance in the market as the company has been vague about the sustainability of its palm oil substitute. For news coverage on Darrel Lea being kicked out from the RSPO click on the link below.
https://www.eco-business.com/news/australian-firm-that-removed-palm-oil-from-products-expelled-from-sustainable-oil-certifier/
This may affect Darrel Lea's performance in the market as the company has been vague about the sustainability of its palm oil substitute. For news coverage on Darrel Lea being kicked out from the RSPO click on the link below.
https://www.eco-business.com/news/australian-firm-that-removed-palm-oil-from-products-expelled-from-sustainable-oil-certifier/