The Cocoa, Forests and Diversity Agreement promoted by the Coalition for Sustainable Production with the support of the Tropical Forest Alliance was presented on Friday, May 28th. This collective action effort between the public, private and civil society sectors seeks to position and reinforce the differentiation of Peru as an exporter of quality cocoa with verified attributes of origin and free of deforestation.
During the presentation of the agreement, the Minister of Agrarian Development of Peru, Federico TenorioIn his speech, he highlighted Peru's international commitment to reducing greenhouse gases in the Peruvian Amazon, with mechanisms related to land use change and deforestation-free family farming, in order to achieve a sustained increase in the income and livelihoods of rural producers, prioritizing family farming. "The Cocoa Forests and Diversity agreement is an important instrument to achieve an action oriented to develop actions that promote a differentiated cocoa in sustainability in the global market, seeks to generate commitments in the short and medium term, to achieve territories free of deforestation and thus form a suitable environment for sustainable business, with a focus on circular economy. " he noted.
"The agreement is a collective, voluntary action; what we are looking for is to improve that relationship between cocoa, tropical agriculture and forests." explains Fabiola Muñoz, Coordinator of the Coalition for Sustainable Production "there we are going to generate value in economic, social and environmental terms. We want to contribute to the differentiation strategy of our cocoa." She also explained that the agreement allows progress on certain commitments made by the participants, such as the goal of having a deforestation-free supply chain by 2025, the positioning of Peruvian cocoa in international markets, recovery of degraded areas for the generation of green jobs, work with incentives, traceability and monitoring systems..
On the private sector side, José Mejía, general manager of Amazonas TradingAlthough progress has been made in cocoa production, prices for standard cocoa are really low, he said.. "This window of making sustainable cocoa, related to the forests, allows us to sell our customers a certified cocoa; for us this agreement is very important, especially within the framework of the Green Pact". On the other hand, he commented that the company currently has two major challenges: the first challenge is to restore our ecosystems and biodiversity through certification seals, where producers' plots have 30 percent of forests and producers can be paid better. The second major challenge is to be able to have traceability systems through digital systems that ensure direct purchase from the consumer.
Likewise, the manager of Acopagro, Gonzalo Ríosagreed that we want these new attributes to also generate value to our grains, allowing better income for our producers. "We have to position our cocoa with biodiversity, free of deforestation and zero emissions." explains Rios. "In addition to cocoa, we have planted 3,000 hectares of timber trees, which has allowed us to capture more than 200,000 tons of CO2 and also to obtain timber.".
In Peru, more than 100,000 families are engaged in cocoa production in 16 regions, and it is an important source of family farming (Midagri).
Along the same lines, Luis Mendoza manager of the Peruvian Association of Cocoa Producers (APPCACAO) explained that the Peruvian cocoa sector generates around US$300 million in exports. "However, we must be aware that in recent years there are some trends at the international level with respect to regulations regarding sustainable cocoa, there is the ISO34011 standard from Switzerland that sets a goal of no deforestation by 2025. Right now, the European Union is discussing sustainable production schemes". In this regard, he pointed out that "Peru has a lot of experience in sustainable production, since organic production has been in place for several years.
>>> Watch the complete video of the live broadcast of the event here. <<<<
The agreement commits to a deforestation-free value chain by 2025.
