the Association of the Chocolate, Biscuits & Confectionery Industries of Europe – pledges its own contributions to the EU Code of Conduct on Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices towards more sustainable food systems, one of the first deliverables of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and an integral part of its action plan. In addition to being covered by FoodDrinkEurope’s aspirational objectives, CAOBISCO is taking one step ahead by directly signing the Code of Conduct and partnering with the EU through sector-specific contributions. The Code sets out common aspirations and indicative actions which actors can voluntarily commit to tangibly improve and communicate their sustainability performance.
Our industry is committed to move towards more sustainable food systems and contribute to preserve, protect, and restore food systems. Sustainability is a topic of ever-increasing importance for CAOBISCO and has been central in our companies’ strategies over the last years. CAOBISCO members have already taken actions towards relevant EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork objectives to enable sustainability food transition, by ensuring that our products are responsibly sourced and encouraging private sustainable initiatives along the food supply chain. Our members are also committed to promote sustainable food consumption by providing better information to consumer on nutrition and environmental footprint of our products, and by engaging in responsible marketing practices.
CAOBISCO has now submitted sectoral contributions on its own, related to specific projects that contribute to resilient and sustainable food systems:
- Applied research projects in collaboration with the Joint Research Fund, as well as thematic research areas in food safety, resilient cropping systems and disease management that uses applied research for cocoa sustainability and resilience worldwide;
- Public-Private-Partnership project with ILO (International Labour Organization) in Turkey to combat child labour in seasonal agriculture in Turkey for hazelnut production.
Committing to the Code of Conduct is voluntary and allows our sector and our companies to display and show existing private/public flagship initiatives. Muriel Korter, Director General of CAOBISCO indicated that: “(the Code of Conduct) it encourages our businesses but also other food companies to align their sustainability actions and business practices to aspirational objectives and targets, meaning sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all, and sustainable sourcing in food supply chains, among other”.
CAOBISCO supports the objectives of the Code of Conduct and will keep engaging with the European Commission to move forward with additional pledges in the future.
Additional information on CAOBISCO contributions
More general information
Our full statement is available here.
