Mars, Incorporated has released its Cocoa for Generations 2025 Progress Report, confirming that 98% of its annual global cocoa volume was sourced through its Responsibly Sourced Cocoa (RSC) programme.

The achievement marks the midpoint conclusion of specific targets established in 2018 under the company's 10-year, $1 billion Cocoa for Generations initiative running through 2028. According to the report, the volume procured under the RSC framework was verified as deforestation- and conversion-free (DCF) relative to established cut-off dates, while 100% of cocoa sourced from participating farms in West Africa operated with Child Labour Monitoring & Remediation Systems (CLMRS) in place.

The progress report outlines developments across the strategy's three operational pillars, modern, inclusive, and sustainable, while detailing how the business plans to integrate lessons from concluded initiatives into subsequent programmes.

"2025 was a landmark year for Cocoa for Generations, signifying a turning point in our efforts to help address the industry's most deep-rooted, interconnected challenges," said Benjamin Guilbert, Global Senior Vice President, Cocoa Enterprise at Mars.

Deforestation-Free Sourcing and Child Labour Monitoring

The report highlights quantitative milestones achieved across environmental traceability and human rights protections in key sourcing origins.

Suppliers across the Mars value chain delivered deforestation- and conversion-free verification across 98% of the company's 2025 global supply. In parallel, human rights compliance was anchored by the comprehensive rollout of CLMRS protocols across all active RSC farmer networks throughout West Africa, targeting the structural risks associated with child labour in smallholder farming communities.

As early ten-year pilot programmes reached conclusion at the end of 2025, Mars transitioned core methodologies into subsequent frameworks, including its Journey to Thrive programme, launched in late 2024. Operating in Côte d'Ivoire alongside supply partners and non-governmental organisations, the programme combines conditional cash incentives, subsidised professional farm labour, and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). By the end of 2025, the initiative had reached more than 9,334 cocoa-farming households.

Agronomic Science and AI Deployment

To increase agricultural yields and manage persistent crop pathology, Mars deployed new botanical planting stock and artificial intelligence tools across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region:

🔬 High-Yield Disease-Resistant Clones: Mars registered 37 high-productivity cocoa clones with the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil, and released two cultivars, ISC1 and SCC11, in partnership with Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency.

📱 Cocoascan Diagnostic Tool: An AI-powered diagnostic application deployed to help Latin American farmers identify early visual symptoms of three prevalent fungal diseases: Witches’ Broom, Frosty Pod, and Black Pod.

🌾 Cocoa Fresh AI: A mobile workflow application designed to digitise and accelerate quality assessment across wet and dry bean supply chains, transitioning collection points away from manual record-keeping.

🌱 Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions: A regional programme engaging 430 farmers across 3,541 hectares in Latin America, implementing targeted interventions to improve soil health, elevate crop yields, and reduce agricultural emissions.

Socioeconomic Interventions and Community Programmes

The report documented the conclusion of the ten-year Women for Change initiative (2016–2025), conducted in partnership with humanitarian organisation CARE.

Focusing on financial inclusion and gender equity in cocoa communities, the programme surpassed its initial operational targets, establishing VSLAs that reached 106,239 members, of whom 77% are women. Over the decade-long operating window, the financial networks generated $26.56 million in collective member savings and issued $17.68 million in local community loans to finance agricultural inputs and small enterprise ventures.

Priorities for Supply Chain Resilience

Looking beyond 2025, Mars has outlined two strategic priorities to steer the next phase of its cocoa sourcing operations through 2028:

On-Farm Professionalisation: Supporting smallholders and larger estates to enhance farm management capabilities, improve agronomic practices, raise yields per hectare, and establish stable household incomes.

Supply Diversification and Climate Adaptation: Broadening geographical sourcing origins while investing in regenerative agriculture to restore soil biology, safeguard regional biodiversity, and mitigate climate exposure across key equatorial growing belts.

Through these measures, the conglomerate aims to adapt its commercial procurement models to evolving regulatory standards, persistent climate volatility, and shifting socioeconomic conditions across global cocoa supply chains.