First Mainstream Chocolate Brands Launched in Europe with Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) Seal; Commitment to Buy 30,0
According to Schmitz-Hoffmann, it is important for cocoa farmers to improve their incomes by introducing better agricultural practices, improving selling methods and ensuring that the certified cocoa they produce has broader appeal beyond niche markets.
Pascal Bourdin, Senior Vice President of Kraft Foods and General Manager of its European chocolate business, agrees and believes that sustainably farmed cocoa will provide high quality cocoa beans over the long term.
"Cote d'Or and Marabou are two of our premium chocolate brands. By using sustainably grown Ivorian cocoa, we can continue to offer the most intense chocolate pleasure to our consumers while improving the lives of cocoa farmers and helping secure high quality cocoa for the longer term."
Bourdin underlines that this latest initiative represents only one step in Kraft Foods' broader sustainability commitment. The company intends to continue its efforts to encourage sustainable cocoa farming, working individually in cocoa producing regions as well as with others as part of broader initiatives such as those led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Cocoa Foundation.
"I believe we've made a great start. My dream is to see every piece of chocolate worldwide made with cocoa from certified farms," says Bourdin.
Kraft Foods (www.kraftfoodscompany.com) makes today delicious in 150 countries around the globe. Our 100,000 employees work tirelessly to make delicious foods consumers can feel good about. With global powerhouse brands like Oreo and LU biscuits, Philadelphia cream cheeses, Jacobs and Carte Noire coffees, Tang powdered beverages and Milka, Cote d'Or and Toblerone chocolates, we deliver millions of smiles every day. Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) is the world's second largest food company with annual revenues of $42 billion. The company is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor's 500, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Ethibel Sustainability Index.
For further information about the public-private partnership, visit www.certified-cocoa.com. Other related links: www.rainforest-alliance.org; www.gtz.de/en; www.worldcocoafoundation.org
Sabine Peters-Halfbrodt, +41/(0)58/4404285,
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, or Richard Buino, +1-847-646-4538,
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, both of Kraft Foods
00 Tons of Sustainable Cocoa Beans by End 2012
First Mainst ZURICH, - Kraft Foods today announced a major step forward in its long-standing support of sustainable cocoa farming. Based on pioneering work started in 2005 in the Cote d'Ivoire, the company has launched the first mainstream chocolate products in Europe to carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) seal. Additionally, it has committed to increase current purchases of cocoa beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) farms ten-fold by the end of 2012, to 30,000 tons.
