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Starting today, the first Delicata chocolate bars in Albert Heijn shops will feature the yellow ‘Tony’s Open Chain’ button on the packaging. This button states ‘Together we make chocolate 100% slave free’. With its chocolate brand Delicata, Albert Heijn is the first to join the new open source platform ‘Tony’s Open Chain’ and, from now on, will only purchase cocoa for Delicata according to Tony’s Chocolonely 5 sourcing principles [link]. This approach guarantees a living wage for cocoa farmers. Tony’s Chocolonely’s mission to create slave free chocolate is now becoming a reality.
Today also marks the launch of Tony’s Chocolonely’s www.tonysopenchain.com. This ‘open source’ online platform will grow in coming years to be the leading source of knowledge and tools for chocolate companies looking to put an end to illegal child labour and modern slavery, just like Tony’s Beantracker and the ‘Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System’ introduced at all of Tony’s Chocolonely’s partner cooperatives.
Its Delicata products make Albert Heijn the first mission partner. The new Delicata chocolate is made from traceable cocoa mass produced by Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate maker. The cocoa beans are purchased at a higher price from Tony’s Chocolonely’s partner cooperatives in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Together these three parties show that producing chocolate on a large scale using a different approach is very well possible and are putting pressure on the industry to join the mission.
“This is an important moment. With these new Delicata bars, we have joined forces with Tony’s Chocolonely and Barry Callebaut to take a concrete next step towards a transparent and sustainable cocoa chain,” says Henk van Harn, Vice President of Non-Perishables & Non-Food at Albert Heijn.
In other words, the mission of the Amsterdam impact company to ‘make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate’ goes beyond its own chocolate bars. The industry itself must change. Extreme poverty is the root cause of social malpractices in the cocoa industry. These problems can only be solved if companies go beyond certification and pay a higher price than the certification premium. Tony’s Chocolonely’s 5 Principles of Cooperation make a living wage for cocoa farmers possible. Another positive development is the elimination of anonymity from the chain, as it is clear who grows the cocoa beans and under what conditions.
Thanks to this approach, Tony’s Chocolonely will reach around 5,000 cocoa farmers this year. The significant growth of Tony’s Chocolonely is the driver behind the impact strategy to purchase more cocoa directly and with better conditions. However, there are 2.5 million cocoa farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. That is why Tony’s Chocolonely is sharing its approach not only with Albert Heijn, but with other parties as well. After all, change happens more quickly when everyone is engaged.