Tony’s Open Chain is branching out with NATRA
Tony’s Open Chain is branching out with chocolate processor NATRA to provide more processing options to other chocolate brands using the same sourcing model as Tony’s Chocolonely. Tony’s Open Chain is the brand’s initiative that invites other chocolate manufacturers to join the company’s mission to end exploitation in cocoa and accelerate sustainability in the sector by becoming Mission Allies - with the aim to produce measurable impact via Tony's proven sourcing model.
Marieke Doelman, Operations Lead of Tony’s Open Chain, spearheaded the new partnership that saw NATRA join the processing ranks alongside Barry Callebaut and Baronie & Cémoi. She elaborates: “Tony’s Open Chain enables brands to address the industry’s most pressing issues – child labor, poverty and deforestation – by buying beans with our partner cooperatives, according to our 5 Sourcing Principles. With NATRA as a new partner, we provide more options for brands to join us, and that is crucial because only together we can accelerate system-change.”
On joining Tony’s Open Chain as a processor, Joaquin Muñoz, Chief Sustainability Officer of Natra states: “At Natra, we are pleased to communicate our partnership with Tony's Chocolonely, a B Corp chocolate company, like Natra, in our journey towards 100% sustainable chocolate. This exciting new partnership entails the possibility to offer the Tony’s Open Chain to our clients with premium cocoa beans from selected cooperatives in Ivory Coast and Ghana.”
The initiative that’s changing the industry, together.
Currently, there is an unfair distribution of value and power in the chocolate industry that drives cocoa farmers into poverty – resulting in illegal labour and exploitation. Tony’s Open Chain seeks to change this by inviting other chocolate manufacturers and cocoa-using brands to become Mission Allies and change the norm in the industry together. Onboarding new processors, like NATRA, enables current and future Mission Allies to find their perfect processing match – in turn, driving accelerated growth for the initiative whose ambition is to reach 5% of the global cocoa market in 10 years.
