How Nestlé and Cargill Support Sustainable Farming

Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. 

It produces 10,000 products across 2,000 brands, and each of these has an effect on the environment. 

One of its most popular products, KitKat, sold over five billion bars globally in 2022.

As the Paris Agreement’s 2050 deadline for net zero draws closer, the company is making changes in all scopes of emissions.

Antonia Wanner, Group Head of ESG Strategy and Deployment at Nestlé, says: "We are constantly searching for new solutions to help advance regenerative food systems at scale, which includes enhancing livelihoods across our value chain at the same time.

“Our progress on emissions reductions is proof of our unwavering commitment to our net zero roadmap.”

Nestlé has been working with Cargill for more than 60 years and their collaborative sustainability strategies support Nestlé’s goal of reducing emissions 50% by 2030. 

Nestlé’s ethically sourced cocoa

Nestlé’s ‘Breaks for Good’ KitKat bar is on sale across Europe and uses cocoa sourced from farming families engaged in its Income Accelerator Programme. 

The programme has reached 30,000 cocoa-farming families in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and hopes to impact 160,000 families by 2030. 

The Income Accelerator Programme aims to close the living income gap and reduce child labour risks in cocoa farming communities. 

It also rewards positive practices at home and on the farm in four areas:

• School enrollment
• Good agricultural practices
• Agroforestry activities
• Diversified incomes

The programme also distributes cash transfers equally between the heads of households to encourage gender equality and build more resilient households.

Nestlé runs similar initiatives in other farming industries, including coffee.

As a partner of the programme, Cargill works with the Rainforest Alliance to provide certified cocoa and uses data tools to monitor cocoa from growth to factory, ensuring transparency and traceability. 

Michiel van der Bom, Product Line Director for Cargill’s Europe and West Africa cocoa and chocolate business, says: “As a partner on Nestlé’s sustainability journey, we are implementing solutions to source ingredients for Nestlé in ways that help restore the environment, support families and increase incomes.”

Nestlé’s agroforestry work

Planting forest and fruit trees on cocoa farms improves water management and biodiversity.

These extra plants also absorb carbon from the atmosphere and cast shade over cocoa trees, providing resilience against extreme weather conditions.

Nestlé is working with Cargill and ETG Beyond Beans to create a more sustainable cocoa supply chain through agroforestry initiatives like this.

Over the next five years, Cargill will provide farmers in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire with forest and fruit trees through two separate projects.

More than two million shade trees will be planted by nearly 20,000 farmers.

Darrell High, Global Cocoa Manager at Nestlé says: “These projects are important milestones on our joint journey to improving farmers’ livelihoods and reducing our business’ climate impact.

“Long-lasting forest protection requires both improving the way cocoa is grown with agroforestry and the protection of the remaining forests. Our cocoa suppliers are critical to making this happen on the ground”

Low-emission fertiliser for Nestlé farmers

Nitrogen fertilisers are needed for production agriculture because crops require higher levels of nitrogen than those found in native soils. 

In nature, plants grow and die so their nitrogen is returned to the soil. When humans harvest plants for food the nitrogen cannot return. 

Nitrogen fertilisers have been used for over a hundred years, and transformed the modern world so drastically that the inventors were awarded Nobel Prizes. 

The nitrogen used in these fertilisers comes from ammonia. 

Currently, ammonia production is mostly used for fertiliser and consumes more than 1% of the world’s energy per year. 

Nitrogen fertiliser production and use accounts for about 5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Cargill and Nestlé are working together to produce a low-emission source of fertiliser using cocoa shells that would otherwise become waste. 

This is part of a two year circular bioeconomy pilot evaluating performance of fertiliser made with cocoa shells from cocoa processed in York.

The shells are processed into fertiliser in Swindon, then supplied to farmers growing wheat for Nestlé. 

In this two year trial, more than 6,000 tonnes of fertiliser will be produced and supplied to farms across the UK.

Rookery Farm in Norfolk supplies wheat to Nestlé for Purina PetCare products. 

Farm Manager Richard Ling says the fertiliser results are reassuring and it is looking at running further trials.

Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability for Nestlé UK&I, says: “I'm proud of our sustainability journey so far at Nestlé and am excited for what we're yet to achieve in the fight against climate change and nature loss.”

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