16|Retail News|April 2021|www.retailnews.ie
Retail News Interview
Doing the right things Michelle O’Neill, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Mars Wrigley’s Cocoa business, explains the company’s Fairtrade journey over the last decade, details the huge investment Mars Wrigley has made in addressing structural inequalities, poverty and human rights risks in cocoa farming and explains what more needs to be done by all stakeholders. AS Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Mars’ cocoa business, Cork-born Michelle O’Neill is at the forefront of helping to address change in the cocoa business worldwide. On the tenth anniversary since Mars joined the Fairtrade movement, she reflects on the progress made and talks us through some of the programmes the company has put in place for the betterment of cocoa farm families. It has been 10 years since Mars Wrigley joined Fairtrade. What progress has been made over the last decade? Over the last 10 years, Mars and Fairtrade’s partnership has improved incomes for cocoa farmers. More cocoa sold on Fairtrade terms, together with supporting programmes that enhance infrastructure, advocacy and networking, have helped to improve farmers’ economic situation. Building on 10 years of impact together, we’ve seen firsthand the positive difference that improved incomes make in cocoa communities. The Fairtrade Premium has supported farmers to invest in their organisations and infrastructure, strengthen their resilience and develop their communities. At Mars, we believe everyone working within our extended supply chains should earn sufficient income to maintain a decent standard of living. Many smallholder farms are family businesses and, like Mars as a family-owned business, we want those farming businesses to be successful for generations to come. Increasing their income is incredibly complex, and it is only one aspect of the multidimensional poverty smallholder farmers are facing. No single player can solve poverty alone but as a company, we can play a significant role, using an evidencebased and principles-led approach alongside other critical actors, including certifiers, governments, suppliers, supply chain partners and the farmers themselves, in achieving this ambition.
Is the Fairtrade movement still as important today as it was when Mars Wrigley joined? Certification programmes have driven real improvements in organising farmer groups, providing best practice trainings, improving farm cooperative management through financial and governance training, raising awareness of child labour, and increasing farmer income through premiums. Certifiers have helped create an enabling environment to make progress toward sustainable cocoa. We collaborate closely with certifiers to strengthen their standards and assurance process across the industry, to push for more effective monitoring, evaluation and learning. Our goal is to continue to collabourate and drive an evolution of standards. We believe this evolution will lead to the cocoa sector adopting a new approach that will bring more impact. What are the big challenges still facing the cocoa industry? We’ve been vocal about our belief that global supply chains are broken and that companies depending on commodities grown by smallholder farmers are at a crossroads.
