Supporting responsibly-sourced cocoa this Easter
21 March 2016
This Easter, the chocolate in every Tesco own label Easter egg supports responsibly grown cocoa and the farmers who grow it.
For many of us, tucking into an Easter egg is a traditional, and delicious, part of the Easter festivities.
Whether that’s our award-winning Billionaire’s Dynamite Easter egg or our Finest Coconut Egg.
However, not many of us think about where the cocoa that goes into making our Easter eggs comes from.
It’s important because the cocoa industry has a number of challenges, including management of poor soil fertility, deforestation, incorrect use of chemicals, among other things – plus child labour, low income for workers and poor conditions.
And it’s why this Easter, the chocolate in every Tesco own label Easter egg – we have 54 own label Easter products this year – supports responsibly grown cocoa and the farmers who grow it.
We’ve sourced cocoa from three programmes which promote responsible cocoa – UTZ cocoa programme, Cocoa Horizons and Fairtrade.
Each one of these helps cocoa farmers to grow in a more sustainable and ethical way, promoting good agricultural practices, helping them get higher yields and giving them a premium price for their cocoa. They also help grow awareness of ethical labour conditions for workers and the importance of education for children.
Collaborative action is vital if we want more cocoa to be produced responsibly; that’s why we’ve also joined the World Cocoa Foundation. It brings together people from across the industry to work together on some of the biggest challenges faced by cocoa-growing farmers and communities.
We’re not stopping at Easter eggs – this is just one step. We are committed to continuing this journey and have created a roadmap to ensure all our cocoa will be sourced responsibly, across all our own label cocoa products. Through our membership to the World Cocoa Foundation and our long-term, sustainable relationships with our suppliers, we want to have a positive impact on cocoa production and on the communities that depend on it.