Identify strategic partners

Regardless if they are suppliers, support organisations or a federation, all of these entities have a part to play in the future of your company. They will be required to provide you with knowledge and expertise, to provide additional resources or to help you increase your visibility.

Information and support organisations

1819

1819 is the primary information service for Brussels-Capital Region entrepreneurs. The service has a dual objective : 

• To provide entrepreneurs with first-line information about the various aspects of operating a business
• To help companies navigate the Brussels network of support institutions and organisations

hub.brussels

hub.brussels is the Brussels Business Support Agency. Launched on 1 January 2018, it is the result of the merger between Atrium.Brussels, Brussels Invest & Export and Impulse.brussels.

A leading public partner, hub.brussels intends to make Brussels the most attractive area in Europe for carrying out and developing economic activities.

The aim of hub.brussels is to contribute to the long-term development of the Brussels economy, via three missions:

• Advising, equipping and giving support to economic projects in Brussels and to those carrying them out in order to ensure their success in Brussels and abroad
• Detecting, fostering, initiating and attracting new economic, technological and business opportunities, both in Brussels and abroad
• Helping public authorities to formulate and implement a proactive economic policy and ensure a stimulating entrepreneurial ecosystem

Local Economy Offices (Guichets d’économie Locale)

Five Brussels municipalities (Brussels City, Saint-Gilles, Schaerbeek, Anderlecht and Molenbeek) have a Local Economy Office (GEL) which helps new entrepreneurs grow their business as either a natural person or a legal entity.

In addition, employment creation support organisations (ACE) in partnership with Actiris, such as LES, Jobyourself, Credal and Microstart can guide you in creating you business in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Choprabisco

Choprabisco (Royal Belgian Association of the Chocolate, Praline, Biscuit and Candies Industry) represents the professionals of the sector in Belgium. The association has 165 members (including artisanal companies, SMEs and multinationals) accounting for 90% of the sector’s revenue. The association provides information, supports and advises its members on specific aspects of the sector and provides them with the information they need - and, if required, to the authorities - to enable them to handle any potential problems, events and challenges.

Supply sources

Depending on the type of concept you want to develop, there are two different cocoa supply sources available: the traditional one, which consists in buying from large couverture chocolate companies and the other, more ethical and innovative one, like the bean-to-bar trend. To help you make an informed choice between the two, the purpose of this section is to describe the channels and raise your awareness about the ethical issues involved in each.

The traditional channel: the flaws of overproduction

The chocolate sector consists of the production and manufacturing companies, shops and services related to chocolate products. Until recently, the cocoa supply chain consisted nearly exclusively of four main players.

Growers sell their beans (directly or via cooperatives) to large processing companies¹ which roast them and reduce them to powder to provide a semi-finished product (couverture chocolate). The product is then bought by chocolatiers (both large and small companies) which manufacture their own chocolate-based products before selling them to consumers (via their own shops or via supermarkets).

However, full industrialisation entails problems: shortages, deforestation, extreme poverty and child labour are all part of the daily lives of bean producers.

Shortages

The ever-greater concentration of companies downstream of the cocoa channel (bean processing, chocolate manufacturers) since the 20th century has put increasing pressure on producers to constantly increase yields upstream. This has resulted in risks for cocoa supplies, notably in terms of the Forastero variety of beans (about 80% of global production, primarily from Africa).

Deforestation

Global cocoa production has quadrupled since 1960, to the detriment of old-growth forests, primarily in West Africa: over 90% of old-growth forest in West Africa has disappeared.

The model promoted by the chocolate industry assumes producer specialisation, the expansion of the cocoa-growing area in the forest, and the use of chemical inputs. Today, yields in the Ivory Coast are among the lowest in the world and the impact of deforestation on climate is one of the causes.

Extreme poverty

The sector is currently being undercut by extreme poverty, notably in West Africa, which accounts for 70% of the very small family farms active in cocoa bean production.

The phenomenon worsened further following the crisis which, between September 2016 and February 2017 saw a drastic drop in the world market price of cocoa following over-production, to the detriment of old-growth forests.

Many families farming cocoa live under the poverty line and are severely impacted by price volatility. 

Given this context, some producers even farm cocoa at a loss. Most observers agree that measures must be taken to ensure a decent wage for producers.

Child labour

In West Africa, many farmers live in rural areas without roads, electricity, drinking water, or medical, educational or other necessary services.

A report by BASIC (bureau d’analyse sociétale pour une information citoyenne - Bureau for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for Citizen Information), ordered by the fair trade platform, explains that “due to the poverty and lack of educational infrastructure, the children of farming families often have to work on the family farms. This sometimes involves the worst forms of child labour, as defined by ILO conventions.”  

Despite awareness of the problem, the phenomenon has worsened over the past years, following the increase in chocolate production. It is estimated that 2.1 million children work on cocoa farms in West Africa alone. “It would appear that a combination of factors, which includes the poverty and structural insecurity of producers, a lack of infrastructure, and the socio-political instability of the country is the reason for the recent increase in child labour.”

Keeping these realities in mind can, therefore guide you in the choice of your concept. A number of projects and innovative trends can help direct you toward a socially responsible approach.

More ethical channels: social responsibility and bean-to-bar

The Cocoa Barometer has sounded the alarm: while there has been growing global awareness, adequate political action has not followed.

 “Western Europe, the United States and Australasia are not only the largest bloc of consumer nations, they are also home to most of the cacao and chocolate multinationals. As such, they have a doubly important role to play to ensure that the cocoa sector is respectful of human rights and the environment."

Nevertheless, commitments from the main players and the development of fair and/or sustainable trade, and the bean-to-bar movement are helping, insofar as possible, to provide answers to these challenges.

Initiatives for more responsible chocolate

A few recent initiatives deserve to be highlighted:

• In Belgium, the Beyond Chocolate partnership, launched at the end of 2018 by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Cooperation Development, Alexander de Croo: via this partnership for more sustainable Belgian chocolate, the chocolate sector, major retailers and civil society have committed to fight against child labour and deforestation and ensure that local cocoa producers are paid a decent wage.
• The gradual implementation at the global level of an ISO standard for sustainable and traceable cocoa.
• The Cocoa & Forests Initiative launched in 2017 by the main global cocoa and chocolate companies and the governments of the Ivory Coast and Ghana and coordinated by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and the Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit. This initiative has enabled the publication of action plans to end deforestation in the cocoa supply chain and to restore forest zones.

Certifications: Insufficient but encouraging results

In addition, fair trade has been growing since the 1960s in reaction to the economic models of the agri-foods industry.

Commitments have been made by the players in the various channels to enable producers and workers to live from their work and collectively invest for the long term.

Fair trade has also met the expectations of consumers who want to buy more sustainably. It consists of four founding principles:

• A collective and democratic organisation enables producers and workers to be involved in management and negotiations.
• There is a minimum guaranteed price which provides protection against raw materials price volatility
• A fair trade premium is provided. Its use is decided collectively by the small organisations of small producers and workers
• Awareness-raising campaigns for consumers intended to apply pressure for greater transparency in the farming channels

The fair trade guarantee is certified by the Fairtrade label from Fairtrade International (FI).           

During the 1990s, sustainable certifications based on similar criteria were added in direct “competition” with existing fair trade certifications. The industry can refer to two major label systems: the Rainforest Alliance (RA) and UTZ Certified, which merged to form the Rainforest Alliance Certified at the end of 2019.

Illustration

Of the three labels above, the Fairtrade label is the oldest and strictest. The fair trade premium is fixed, which isn’t the case for the sustainable certifications (it is negotiable between seller and buyer)3.

According to Fairtrade Belgium, 136,000 tonnes of Fairtrade-certified cocoa beans were sold around the world in 2016, a 27% increase over four years. They were produced by 179,000 small producers, including over 140,000 in West Africa. However, chocolate made using Fairtrade-labelled cocoa had barely 1% market share in Belgium in 2017 (2,744 tonnes), although this was up by 45%4.

In addition, the human rights and environmental goals set are not close to being met. In May 2016, the BASIC report made a comparison between the - quite distinct - situations of Ivory Coast and Peruvian cocoa farmers who use certifications.

In summary, the fair trade premium has resulted in local improvements in the Ivory Coast, but the structural under-remuneration and social impact (working conditions, health, child labour, etc.) have not been resolved. In Peru, on the other hand, the agroforestry tradition and the historical development of cooperatives have provided fertile ground for a virtuous circle which can lead to accelerated fair trade/sustainable premiums and other incentives for more respectful production.

In conclusion, it can be affirmed that, in line with the above-cited report, a number of conditions must be met to generate a virtuous circle in a fair trade channel:

• Strong, democratic cooperatives which are able to grow.
• The guarantee of income above the poverty line and a premium large enough to strengthen the cooperatives and their investments.
• The development of agroforestry to ensure the sustainability of the impacts of fair trade.
• The development of the quality of cocoa and of local production with buyers and consumers

Bean-to-bar

Some chocolatiers have stopped using large processing companies for several years now. They handle every production step of their products themselves and obtain their supplies directly from local producers.

This process is called bean-to-bar: the movement, which first started in English-speaking countries, consists in working chocolate while maintaining control of the process, from the bean to the chocolate bar. It implies chocolatiers who are passionate about taste and concerned about the social conditions of their producers. A more qualitative selection of beans is doubly profitable because it implies a close relationship with the plantation ecosystem while opening the door to new opportunities.

The experiences of two chocolatiers:

• Pierre Marcolini prefers to work with producers directly and pays them better prices than the market. He also wants to avoid the pooling of production which is done by cooperatives which use the “Fairtrade” label: this approach results in uneven quality and poor bean traceability.
• Philippe Lafont imports his beans from a small farmer in Cameroon who has started a social project locally, and from Cuba (the same channel as Pierre Marcolini). He also runs a social project in Cuba to which he has been travelling on a regular basis for over 20 years. He provides chocolatier and patissier training using equipment from Belgium and using local products only.

⁽¹⁾ The main ones are the Franco-Belgium-Swiss Barry-Callebaut, the Americans Cargill, ADM-Cocoa (ADM for Archer Daniels Midland, taken over by OLAM) and Blommer. These four companies purchase over 45% of the cocoa beans produced in the world.

⁽²⁾ Bellantonio, M. Higonnet, E. Hurowitz, G. (2017). Chocolate’s dark secret – How the cocoa industry destroys national parks. [online]/ Mighty Earth. Available at: https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/chocolates_dark_secret_english_web.pdf 

⁽³⁾ Wagralim. (2016). Le secteur du chocolat en Belgique : un regard sur les opportunités et pistes d’innovation. [online]. Wagralim – Competitiveness cluster – Agri-industry, Wavre. Available at: http://info.wagralim.be/rapport-sur-le-chocolat

⁽⁴⁾ Masset, A. (2018, 24 April). “Il faut payer un meilleur prix aux producteurs de cacao”. La Libre Belgique, p.24.   

⁽⁵⁾ Bellantonio, M. Higonnet, E. Hurowitz, G. (2017). Chocolate’s dark secret – How the cocoa industry destroys national parks. [online]/ Mighty Earth. Available at: https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/chocolates_dark_secret_english_web.pdf