In 2012 the Association of the German Confectionery Industry – BDSI launched its initiative for sustainability in the cocoa sector. The BDSI recommends that its members significantly increase the share of sustainably produced cocoa in confectionery sold in Germany over the next few years in order to achieve a 75% share in the sector as a whole by 2025. (By 2018, the share had already been raised to 62%.) This goal is supported by the best intentions of the German confectionery makers and yet can only be achieved through the cooperation of all stakeholders throughout the value chain, not by the manufacturers alone. This makes it necessary for all stakeholders to get actively involved on all levels and take their respective responsibilities seriously.
To ensure the success of these concerted efforts, the BDSI launched the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) in 2012 in cooperation with the federal German government, the German retail trade and Germany’s civil society. In 2015 GISCO started PRO-PLANTEURS, a joint project of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa together with the German and the Ivorian government.
BDSI was also one of the key stakeholder in the work of the ISO standard 34101 “Sustainable and Traceable Cocoa” which was published 2019.
