Photo: Wosilat Fotografie
As a food engineer with a passion for bringing innovation to consumers, Hauke Will combines the indulgence of chocolate with technology and an understanding of quality aspects. After earning a degree in business innovation, he set up the Ritter Sport cocoa farm “El Cacao,” which shows what a modern sustainable plantation could look like.
Ritter Sport is committed to promoting sustainable farming. How do you work with farmers to ensure that the ingredients in your products are grown sustainably?
As a family-owned company, we think and act in a sustainable way. We work in partnerships with our farmers and suppliers in the supply chain of our ingredients and raw materials. Beyond our mission statement, we have developed an internal sustainability charter for our core raw materials, like cocoa and hazelnuts. With this clear vision of how we wanted to source our raw materials and design our supply chain, we set up long-term partnerships to assure that the needs of everyone in the supply chain are clearly addressed. Personal visits and contact are needed to get the right feeling and trust inside these partnerships. We also verify our convictions with an objective, external certification to ensure that we are on the right track.
What are some milestones you have reached in your efforts to achieve transparency?
We started in 1990 with a program in Nicaragua to support farmers and their cooperatives in sustainable growing practices and increase their quality and volume to ensure a better income. The result is very impressive: during the last decade, the volume of cocoa exported from Nicaragua increased significantly and the effort to improve quality was rewarded in 2016, when Nicaragua became an origin of fine flavour cocoa. Enriched with this experience, we used the Cacao-Nica program as a blueprint for programs in our other sourcing origins, adapted to the needs and conditions of our local partners.
In 2018, this passion and effort resulted in Ritter Sport being the first large chocolate manufacturer to source 100% of its cocoa from certified sustainable sources. Last year, we achieved a further goal of 100% traceability down to the farmer organization level. We are now looking forward of reaching full transparency down to the farmer level by 2025.
In the area of climate-friendly farming, Ritter Sport is committed to combating deforestation. What processes do you have in place to guarantee that none of your ingredients are sourced from deforested areas?
For our own farms, we have a clear understanding and concept of how we grow cocoa and hazelnuts. On our “El Cacao” farm in Nicaragua, for example, we decided to use an agroforestry system. In 2012, we bought 2,500 hectares of cattle-used land. Half of the land, which was still jungle, we preserved as a natural habitat. The other half we use for growing cocoa in a mixed culture: a combination of more than one million cocoa plants, over 30,000 shade trees and numerous legumes are our answer to thinking beyond the avoidance of deforestation —we have established a “cocoa forest.”
For all our sourcing origins, we support the planting of shade trees and encourage farmers to build an agroforestry system. We also assure in our cocoa programs and long-term partnerships that there is no deforestation at all. We require a polygon mapping from all of our farmers to ensure that no more forest is used for growing cocoa. A lot of good technical tools are currently available to see whether deforestation is taking place or not.
Please tell us more about Ritter Sport’s commitment to establishing agroforestry systems.
I am convinced that growing cocoa in an agroforestry system is the most sustainable possibility. To be sure, there is no one-size-fits-all agroforestry system: it has to be developed and adapted to local climate conditions, soil quality, etc. We have created a master plan for our “El Cacao” farm (see photo). At this location, shade coverage of 30% is the right mixture: the cocoa is very productive and a healthy microsystem is assured within the agroforestry structure.
In our long-term partnerships and programs in other origins, we work on agroforestry systems adapted to local circumstances. But growing trees takes time until all of them have reached their productive age. To meet our goal of sourcing all of our cocoa from agroforestry systems by 2035, the full agroforestry system must not only be planted but well established.
Many of your products contain nuts or dried fruits. What standards do you adhere to in the sourcing of these ingredients?
For cocoa, a lot of sustainability standards are available. For nuts and dried fruits, it is quite different. Not having widely accepted standards for this group of ingredients, we set up our own standard. It is a kind of risk analysis. We integrated different aspects inside an evaluation matrix and matched them with other good agricultural and sustainable practices. It would be helpful if a transparent and understandable tool for measuring the sustainability of dried fruits and nuts were established.
In terms of sustainability and traceability, what lessons do you think the nuts and dried fruits industry could learn from the experience of Ritter Sport?
First of all: analyze your portfolio very well and then get really familiar with the supply chain of all your ingredients. After establishing your goals and their measurement tools, you have to strengthen, sharpen and shorten your supply chain and focus first on the most important raw materials. Dive deep into each supply chain and create long-term partnerships and match them with your understanding of quality, sustainability and maybe other values. My experience says that this will only be possible if you know the face behind your ingredient: the farmer, farmer organization, etc. So travel a lot, talk to them —or even better, first listen to them. Make agreements and improve the supply chain together by creating trust. Last but not least, treat your partners as you want to be treated —on the same level!
Ritter Sport is developing its own sustainably managed hazelnut farm in the south of France. The goal is for 20% of your hazelnut requirements to be home-grown by 2030. Do you plan to extrapolate these practices to any other nuts or dried fruits in the future?
When we have the confirmed success —why not? We started our farming career about 10 years ago. In my opinion, it is time to reflect: what was good, and what is needed to become better? There are a lot of things that are running very well, but there is also room for improvement. But I am convinced it was the right decision to step into the agribusiness. I am sure we will see other companies doing the same over time. And maybe someday there will be another Ritter Sport farm to support our conviction: doing the right thing to create really good chocolate!
Agroforestry system at Ritter Sport’s “El Cacao” farm. Photo: Ritter Sport.