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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The Better Business Hub is your knowledge platform for market analysis and insights on sustainable business.
Find interviews with companies about sustainability and answers to FAQs about the benefits of sustainable sourcing.
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.
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 […]
One step closer to a new Standard: merging Chain of Custody certification process
While we continue to work hard on a new and improved certification program, we are beginning the transition process for companies. The first step is mutual recognition of the current Chain of Custody certification, which will simplify processes until the new certification is launched. This is how it can benefit companies.
How can National Coffee Platforms help make the global coffee sector more sustainable?
Together with the Global Coffee Platform we want to make the coffee sector long term sustainable. We support the setup of various National Coffee Platforms. Rainforest Alliance’s Christine Hornikal explains how these platforms play an important role in our mission and talks about benefits in Indonesia, Uganda and Honduras.