In 2019, the Cocoa Assurance Plan was implemented. While this contributed to a lower number of UTZ farmers, and estimated certified volumes and area, we have also seen promising improvements in the assurance of our program and a steady demand of UTZ certified cocoa. Check our infographic and report for the latest market insights
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Welcome to
the Better Business Hub
The Better Business Hub is the knowledge platform about the UTZ certification program to support and inspire your sustainability efforts.
Whether you work in sourcing, CSR or marketing, here you find out more about the benefits of sustainable sourcing.
To learn more about Rainforest Alliance’s certification program, visit The Frog Business Blog.
Promising improvements in cocoa assurance and GPS data quality
In 2019, the Cocoa Assurance Plan was implemented. While this contributed to a lower number of UTZ farmers, and estimated certified volumes and area, we have also seen promising improvements in the assurance of our program and a steady demand of UTZ certified cocoa. Check our infographic and report for the latest market insights
Increase in UTZ certified tea supply and demand outpaces overall growth in tea industry
2019 was a good year for the UTZ tea program. The positive trends for both demand and supply outperformed overall growth in the tea industry. The number of UTZ certificate holders went down due to members switching to the Rainforest Alliance certification program. Check our infographic and report for the latest market insights.
UTZ coffee program remains stable with increased demand
In 2019, the UTZ coffee program remained stable with increased demand and a slight decrease in estimated certified production. The expectation is that demand will continue to increase, driving the supply chain to scale up certified supply. Check our infographic for the latest market insights and download the report.
What is the reach of the UTZ program?
The UTZ program has an enormous reach. In fact, it is the world’s biggest certification program for cocoa and coffee. But just how big is it? What are the different ways it can be measured? Phan Ha looks at the 2019 data and explains.
E-course now available for our new MultiTrace traceability system
If you’re sourcing UTZ certified coffee or hazelnuts make sure you follow our new e-courses for MultiTrace. These courses will walk you through the system, step by step. MultiTrace is a data-driven, future-proof traceability platform facilitating our company partners’ growing demand for credible data from certified farms.
Our Response to the Washington Post’s Report on Challenges in Cocoa Farming in West Africa
The Rainforest Alliance is aware of an investigative report published on October 23, 2019 in the Washington Post, which highlights challenges in cocoa farming in Côte d’Ivoire, one of the most important cocoa-producing countries in the world. The Rainforest Alliance became aware of these challenges after our regular monitoring activities identified non-compliances with our certification […]
MultiTrace: Making the traceability of certified supply chains future-proof
Traceability benefits for consumers, businesses, and farmers. This is why we implemented MultiTrace, a data-driven traceability platform to improve supply chain sustainability.
Five years in: Reporting on the UTZ hazelnut program
We launched the UTZ hazelnut program in 2014 to tackle low productivity, child labor, and poor living and working conditions on farms in the sector. Five years later, find out what we’ve achieved.
The Rainforest Alliance launches cocoa assurance plan in West Africa
The Rainforest Alliance is committed to driving positive impacts in the cocoa sector in West Africa and other cocoa growing regions around the world. Over recent years, the UTZ and the Rainforest Alliance cocoa programs have expanded significantly and with that expansion comes greater responsibility. In May 2018 following the merger with UTZ, the Rainforest […]
The Rainforest Alliance looks for ways to harness remote data sensing technology
We launched the first international Ag-Tech Developer Challenge, a competition for remote data sensing engineers and developers to find new ways to use technology to help farmers on the ground. Learn about the benefits of remote data sensing technology and how it can help innovate agriculture.