CocoaAction Brasil is a pioneering model for cocoa sustainability that helps private sector companies work together across the supply chain, speak with a unified voice with national and local governments, and learn together through a consolidated monitoring and evaluation system.
Leading members of Brazil’s chocolate and cocoa sector launched “CocoaAction Brasil” to address a range of sustainability issues in the country’s cocoa sector, in October 2018. CocoaAction Brasil works to find solutions that increase productivity, improve the quality of Brazil’s cocoa, including controlling pests and diseases, improve farmers’ living and working conditions, strengthen farmers’ organizations, and support sustainable forest-positive cocoa production systems.
Farmers
Community
Planet
Enabling environment
All activities are implemented by engaging members and partners throughout the supply chain. CocoaAction Brasil was initially set-up to run for five years, from 2018 to 2022, but its members decided to extend it for another cycle (estimated 2026/27). The goal is to leave a legacy of collaboration and collective action, so that the Brazilian cocoa sector continues to work together for long-lasting results in sustainability.
A Bahia B Pará
C Espírito Santo
D Amazonas E Mato Grosso F Rondônia
“CocoaAction Brasil is committed to develop a true public-private partnership platform with the Brazilian government and has formed a National Committee to guide important decisions of cocoa sustainability in Brazil.”
Current opportunities in Brazilian cocoa include the country’s status as a leader in the areas of reforestation and biodiversity preservation by cocoa through the country’s agroforestry and cabruca production models. Recent developments in the sector in Pará also hold promise for modeling much higher farm-level productivity.
Challenges noted are low productivity on smallholder farms that ranges from 200-500 kilograms per hectare, too few farmer organizations and low farmer incomes, pest and disease threats, in particular the devastating Frosty Pod Rot (Moniliophthora roreri), and a domestic supply gap that means Brazil must import approximately 70,000 tons of cocoa annually.
WCF initiated efforts that led to the creation of CocoaAction Brasil facilitate company implementation and measurement of the strategy, identify opportunities to lend expertise in policy discussions, fill resource gaps, and generate new insights and learnings to amplify CocoaAction’s impact.
CocoaAction Brasil benefits further from lessons learned through the ongoing implementation of a similar initiative also known as CocoaAction that has been tailored to address needs in the West African nations of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which are the world’s top two producers of cocoa.
CocoaAction Brasil is also drawing on the expertise of cocoa sector partners through a Technical Committee that includes Ceplac, Embrapa, Cocoa Innovation Center, agricultural extension agencies such as Emater-RO, Incaper, Emater-PA, Bahiater, and Empaer-MT, UTZ/Rainforest Alliance, AIPC, ABICAB, SENAR (National Rural Learning Service), and Brazilian representatives of the initiative’s chocolate and cocoa industry members.
The Annual Cocoa Forum is a national and annual event organized by CocoaAction Brasil with the objective of sharing successful experiences and discussing solutions for the construction of a more sustainable cocoa sector with representatives from the Brazilian cocoa supply chain. The Forum has been held since 2018 and convenes supply chain stakeholders, specialists, and cocoa and chocolate associations and entities. The event covers topics such as sustainable production, cocoa growing and processing, and productivity.
Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Ministério da Indústria, Comércio Exterior e Serviços, Ministério da Integração Nacional, the Secretariats of Agriculture from the Brazilian states of Bahia, Pará, Amazonas, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, and Rondonia, MAPA’s Sectorial Cocoa Chamber, CNA (National Association of Growers), ABICAB – Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Chocolates, Amendoim e Balas, AIPC – Associação das Indústrias Processadoras de Cacau, and others.
Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Dengo, Harald, Mars Wrigley, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, and ofi.
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