Belgium's chocolate sector wants to shift towards a more sustainable and equitable market, with plans to offer 100% sustainable products by 2025 and ensure a "living wage" for cocoa farmers by 2030.
Philippe de Selliers, President of industry federation Choprabisco, outlined this vision on Wednesday. "Belgian chocolate is recognised as some of the world's finest; we have a leadership role to fulfil," he stated.
The Belgian sector, encompassing chocolate, pralines, biscuits and confectionery, has been on the rise for several years. The latest figures indicate a turnover of €7.7 billion in 2022, amounting to 10% of the total food industry, spread across 600 businesses employing over 14,200 people.
Chocolate sales alone brought in €6.1 billion in 2023. Belgium is second only to Germany as an exporter, shipping out 668,000 metric tonnes.
However, Belgium also heavily imports, with 330,000 metric tonnes annually, 70% of which is sourced from the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Choprabisco warns that, in these countries, cocoa farmers often live in poverty, which means there are risks of deforestation and child labour.
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As a result, the federation aims to position Belgium as a driving force to improve work conditions, through food sustainability and improved incomes for producers.
"We can no longer ignore the sustainability aspect; it is extremely important," Selliers highlighted. "Hundreds of thousands of people work in difficult conditions in plantations. We have to speed up the process so that every cocoa farmer receives adequate income."
In the 2022 Beyond Chocolate annual report, a partnership for a more sustainable sector, it was revealed that 90% of the chocolate sold and 68% of that produced in Belgium were certified or covered by a sustainability programme.
