Mondelēz International has announced that its Milka chocolate brand will join its ‘Cocoa Life’ sustainable sourcing program.
Milka tablets across Europe will feature a new packaging design displaying the Cocoa Life logo starting in August 2018.
Milka will continue to use high quality ingredients such as Alpine Milk and will now ensure that it contains no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives.
Mondelēz expects to have its entire Milka portfolio in Europe join the program by the end of 2019.
Global Scope
Milka follows other Mondelēz International brands that are sustainably sourced through the Cocoa Life program, including Cadbury Dairy Milk in Ireland, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Côte d’Or in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, Freia and Marabou in the Nordics and Oreo cookies across Europe.
"We’re extremely proud to see Milka, our largest chocolate brand in Europe, join Cocoa Life,” said Hubert Weber, executive vice president and president, Mondelēz Europe.
“We’re seeing great success with the program and, with this move, we’re taking another big step toward our goal of reaching 200,000 farmers and one million people by 2022.”
Sustainable Cocoa Sources
The company said it aims to create a strong cocoa supply chain while transforming lives and livelihoods, addressing deforestation and building resilience to climate change across six cocoa origin countries: Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, India and Brazil.
The Cocoa Life program has reached 120,500 farmers in 1,085 communities as of the end of 2017, and distributed more than one million shade trees as part of a global effort on climate change.
The initiative has also helped the company increase its sourcing of sustainable cocoa to 35%, up 14 percentage points from 2016.
“As one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers, we reach millions of consumers with brands such as Milka,” said Weber. “We want to use this scale to drive positive change for the communities on which we depend, and to work with farmers so we can continue to build strong relationships for the long term.
Now more than ever, our consumers care about their food and want to know that what they’re eating is sustainable.”
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
