According to www.supplychaindive.com, Mars and food and beverage ingredient supplier Ofi have launched a five-year collaboration to cut the carbon footprint of cocoa production across their shared supply chain in Ecuador.
Project Scope and Geographic Focus
The initiative targets cocoa-growing regions in Ecuador, where both companies source raw materials for chocolate and confectionery products. Ecuador produced 369,000 metric tons of cocoa beans in 2024, according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), making it the world’s fourth-largest producer after Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia. The project will directly engage farmers in provinces including Los Ríos and Manabí—regions accounting for over 65% of Ecuador’s national cocoa output. According to the report, the effort covers over 1,200 smallholder farms, each averaging less than 3 hectares in size.
Regenerative Agriculture and Emissions Targets
The collaboration centers on deploying regenerative agriculture practices—including shade-grown cocoa agroforestry, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic compost application—to sequester soil carbon and reduce synthetic input dependency. The source states the project aims to achieve a net reduction of at least 30,000 metric tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions by 2031. This aligns with Mars’ publicly stated target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its full value chain by 2050, and Ofi’s parallel commitment to halve absolute Scope 3 emissions by 2030 (vs. 2019 baseline), as verified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Farmer Support and Productivity Metrics
To support adoption, Mars and Ofi will co-fund training programs delivered through Ecuador’s National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP) and local cooperatives such as CECAO. Farmers will receive technical assistance on pest management, pruning, fermentation, and post-harvest handling. According to the report, pilot interventions conducted in 2023–2024 demonstrated a 22% average increase in yield per hectare and a 17% reduction in farm-level diesel consumption due to optimized transport logistics and on-farm energy efficiency measures. The initiative also includes distribution of over 45,000 native shade-tree saplings to restore biodiversity and improve microclimate resilience.
Industry Context and Peer Initiatives
This project follows similar multi-stakeholder efforts in West Africa: in 2025, Nestlé and the World Cocoa Foundation launched a $20 million program across Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana targeting 150,000 farmers with climate-smart cocoa training. Meanwhile, Hershey’s Cocoa For Good program reported in March 2026 that its work across Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon had certified 127,000 farmers in sustainable practices since 2018. Globally, the cocoa sector contributes an estimated 2.1 million metric tons of CO₂e annually from deforestation-linked land-use change alone, per the 2025 FAO Cocoa Sector Climate Risk Assessment.
Supply Chain Implications for Practitioners
For procurement and sustainability professionals, the Mars-Ofi model demonstrates how Tier 2 and Tier 3 agricultural suppliers can be integrated into decarbonization roadmaps using shared data infrastructure. The project uses satellite-based monitoring (via Planet Labs) to verify land-cover changes and soil carbon metrics quarterly—feeding into both companies’ mandatory Scope 3 emissions reporting under the GHG Protocol. According to the source, real-time agronomic data is accessible via a bilingual (Spanish/English) mobile platform deployed on over 850 Android devices distributed to field agents and cooperative leaders. This enables traceability from plot-level harvest records to final product batches shipped to Mars’ factory in Guayaquil and Ofi’s processing hub in Quito.
Source: Supply Chain Dive
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
