Hershey’s misses

4 December 2020 By Dasha Afanasieva Follow @dasha_reuters

Ghana and Ivory Coast may stop selling sustainable beans to the Reese’s maker, accusing it of dodging payments for impoverished farmers. That could make it harder for the $31 bln group to flaunt its sustainability kudos. The snag is that so far shareholders don’t seem to care.

This content is for Subscribers only

Context News

Ivory Coast and Ghana on Nov. 30 said they would cancel all cocoa sustainability schemes that U.S.-based Hershey runs in their countries, accusing the confectioner of trying to avoid paying a cocoa surcharge by sourcing the commodity through futures contracts, rather than buying it directly.

The countries, which produce two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, said they are also barring third-party companies from running sustainability schemes in the west African nations on behalf of Hershey.

From this year, the two countries are adding a surcharge, called the living income differential, of $400 a tonne to the price of cocoa to tackle poverty among farmers.

Hershey declined to comment on the countries’ claims directly. It said in a statement that it was already “fully participating” in the living income differential for the current 2020/2021 crop, and that it will continue to do so to support cocoa farmer livelihoods.

Context News

The countries, which produce two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, said they are also barring third-party companies from running sustainability schemes in the west African nations on behalf of Hershey.

From this year, the two countries are adding a surcharge, called the living income differential, of $400 a tonne to the price of cocoa to tackle poverty among farmers.

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *