Sustainability Kit Kat

Ethics and Sustainability Project

In 2000 Nestlé and other chocolate companies formed the World Cocoa Foundation. The WCF was set up specifically to deal with issues facing cocoa farmers (disease had wiped out much of the cocoa crop in Brazil) including ineffective farming techniques and poor environmental management.

Nestlé is a founding participant in the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an independent foundation set up in 2002 and dedicated to ending child and forced labour in cocoa growing, and eliminating child trafficking and abusive labour practices.

In October 2009 Nestlé announced its Cocoa Plan. The company will invest CHF 110 million in the Plan over ten years to achieve a sustainable cocoa supply. On the 23rd October 2009 Nestlé and CNRA, the Ivorian National Centre for Plant Science Research, signed a frame agreement for cooperation in plant science and propagation, with a target of producing 1 million high-quality, disease-resistant cocoa plantlets a year by 2012. The aim is to replace old, less productive trees with healthier new ones.

Nestlé is launching a Fair Trade branded Kit Kat in the UK and Ireland from January 2010.

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The Cocoa Plan

The Cocoa Plan brings together Nestlé's activity to promote sustainable cocoa supply under one banner. The Cocoa Plan aims to help address the key issues facing the cocoa farming communities that Nestlé works with, from an economic, social and environmental perspective. Over the next ten years Nestlé will invest over £65 million in the Plan. This builds on the £35 million invested in cocoa sustainability initiatives over the last 15 years.

The Cocoa Plan is not a quick fix for the challenging cocoa situation in the Ivory Coast where yields on farms have been falling while worldwide demand has doubled in the last twenty years. It is, however, an important and significant part of broad, collaborative efforts to improve the cocoa supply chain and the lives of cocoa farmers and communities. Nestlé is working with farmers and with partner organisations to build programmes that offer long–term solutions. This requires a step–by–step approach, in which the company is responsive to the needs of farmers and their communities.

Activity falls under the following areas:

• Plant expertise – improving the quantity and quality of yields by providing 12 million stronger, more productive plantlets over the next 10 years

• Farmer training and assistance – teaching more efficient, sustainable farming methods, such as the effective pruning of trees, fermentation and drying of beans

• Improving the supply chain – a commitment from Nestlé to buy beans from farms which use sustainable practices and helping cooperatives by speeding up the process from farm to export

• Better social conditions – Nestlé is working with partner organisations such as the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation to tackle issues such as child labour and poor access to healthcare and education

• Consumer communication – The Cocoa Plan logo and a dedicated website will invite consumers to learn more about the cocoa supply chain and Nestlé's work with farming communities

Here are some facts about Kit Kat:

• The Kit Kat range, which is produced in York, makes up approximately 23% of Nestlé Confectionery UK sales. Almost a quarter of the Kit Kat sales are of four–finger Kit Kat.

• The UK is the biggest market for Kit Kat globally. It is about twice as big as the second Kit Kat market, Japan.

• Kit Kat continues to be