The Milestone
We are very pleased to announce the finalization and approval of the Procurement Practices Position Paper by the DISCO Steering Committee.
Acknowledging that procurement practices are a fundamental aspect of enabling farmers to earn a living income represents a big step forward for the DISCO partnership – the market-based initiative of the largest cocoa-importing country in the world.
Implications of the paper for DISCO signatories
The paper points to three main procurement principles:
- Principle 1: Farmers are adequately remunerated so that sustainable cocoa farming can be profitable and enables them to earn a living income
- Principle 2: Farmers and farmer groups are reliably and promptly paid for the cocoa beans supplied
- Principle 3: Farmers and farmer groups have assurances from their off-takers in the form of longer-term agreements for the supply of sustainable cocoa in the years to come
And two preconditions:
- Precondition 1: Industry partners acknowledge that procurement practices are an integral component of their living income roadmap
- Precondition 2: Full transparency and traceability (up to farm level) for 100% of the cocoa supplies
All DISCO signatories will incorporate them as part of their individual living income strategies. The adoption and implementation of these principles on procurement practices is a shared responsibility of all companies in the supply chain.
These principles will be added to the DISCO Roadmap on Living Income and help signatories effectively achieve the DISCO objective on living income by 2030. As part of the individual action plans that signatories will submit by the end of June, signatories should indicate how these new principles will be part of their individual living income strategy.
Simply providing services (such as GAP training, farm development planning, and cooperative management capacity building) will no longer be considered a sufficient living income strategy.