Cocoa Horizons

SAY TOMATO

Even though Simply Chocolate is a true Copenhagen-based company, our responsibilities go far beyond Denmark’s borders. All the way to Africa and The Ivory Coast where the cocoa for our chocolate grows. We want to ensure that our cocoa farmers are able to live a good life growing our cocoa, and that’s why we’ve joined Cocoa Horizons Foundation. This makes our chocolate bars a bit more expensive than the rest of the pack—but we believe you can taste the difference!

Yes, we at Simply Chocolate are always emphasizing that we are a Danish company—but we will never be able to grow the cocoa, up here in the Northern hemisphere. That’s why the cocoa beans that go into our chocolate are grown in The Ivory Coast in Western Africa. And we believe that a certain responsibility follows. Just as our local, Copenhagenbased employees work on fair terms, we wish to ensure that the cocoa farmers, their families and the local communities surrounding the cocoa fields thrive and have the opportunity to better their lives. We don’t want to produce and sell chocolate with an aftertaste of underpayment of human beings and exploitation of nature.

Sustainable farming through education

This is the reason we’re part of Cocoa Horizons, a non-profit organization initiated by Belgian chocolate producer Barry Callebaut. Cocoa Horizons works to improve the livelihood for cocoa farmers and the local communities.

They do this through different strategies; in part by introducing sustainable and innovative farming methods, in part by increasing productivity and partly through developing local communities. In detail, Cocoa Horizons educate farmers in ways to improve their work, e.g. through new materials, new techniques and innovative financing solutions. To reduce the CO2 emission, farmers are learning to prune cocoa trees instead of burning, working with a more dense plantation and the sowing of different types of trees on the farms.

Chocolate for school and health

At the same time, Cocoa Horizons are working closely with the farming communities to make it easier for children and youths to get an education, supporting the work to protect children and to give women better opportunities to develop while also ensuring access to clean water and basic health services. E.g., today 49% of all children between 5 and 17 years in the local communities are enrolled in school, and we are working to increase the number. Why? Because education is at the heart of many solutions to ensure ‘our’ cocoa families a great future—and great chocolate for you.