Mars, Incorporated has released its Cocoa for Generations 2025 Progress Report, announcing that suppliers sourced deforestation- and conversion-free cocoa under its Responsibly Sourced Cocoa (RSC) Program equivalent to 98 per cent of its 2025 annual volume.
The publication marks a key milestone in the company’s 10-year, $1 billion Cocoa for Generations initiative (2018–2028), aimed at strengthening farming communities and improving supply chain sustainability.
Benjamin Guilbert, Global Senior Vice President of Cocoa Enterprise at Mars, stated that 2025 represented a turning point in addressing long-standing industry challenges through collaborative, integrated, and scalable solutions.
The report highlights progress across technological, environmental, and social initiatives:
- Agricultural development: Mars registered 37 high-productivity, disease-resistant cocoa clones with Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and released two improved clones (ISC1 and SCC11) alongside the Indonesia National Research and Innovation Agency.
- Artificial Intelligence: The company expanded digital tools across Latin America, including Cocoascan—an AI tool designed to detect visual indicators of infectious diseases such as Witches’ Broom, Frosty Pod, and Black Pod—and Cocoa Fresh AI, a mobile application optimizing bean processing workflows.
- Climate initiatives: A climate-smart agriculture programme engaged 430 farmers across 3,541 hectares in Latin America to improve soil health and crop yields while supporting emissions targets.
- Community empowerment: Concluding a 10-year partnership with CARE, the Women for Change Program reached 106,239 Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) members—77 per cent of whom are women—generating $26.56 million in savings and $17.68 million in loans.
Additionally, the company reported progress under its Journey to Thrive initiative, established in late 2024 to support economic resilience, education, and household equality in Côte d’Ivoire through conditional cash incentives, farm labor support, and VSLAs. The program reached over 9,334 cocoa-farming households by the end of 2025.
Looking ahead, Mars plans to focus the next phase of its strategy on professionalizing farm management capabilities and diversifying cocoa sourcing regions through climate-smart and regenerative farming methods.
