The innovative programme was launched in January 2022 to help close the living income gap of cocoa-farming families and reduce child labour risk. At the same time, it strives to advance better agriculture practices and promote gender equality, empowering women as agents for positive change. The programme incentivises cocoa-farming families that enroll their children in school, implement good agricultural practices, engage in agroforestry activities, and diversify their incomes.

Nestlé’s income accelerator programme has so far supported more than 10,000 families in Côte d’Ivoire and is expanding to Ghana this year to include a total of 30,000 families. By 2030, the programme aims to reach an estimated 160,000 cocoa-farming families in Nestlé’s global cocoa supply chain to create impact at scale.

Nestlé has collaborated with various partners and suppliers to transform its global cocoa sourcing and achieve full traceability and physical segregation of the cocoa sourced from its income accelerator programme. This means being able to track the entire journey of cocoa beans from origin to factory, while keeping them physically separated from other cocoa sources.

The cocoa mass from the income accelerator programme adheres to one of the highest traceability standards, ensuring “mixed identity preserved” traceability, enabling cocoa to be traced and stored separately. In addition, by mid-2024, Nestlé plans to use segregated cocoa butter for all of its KitKat chocolate in Europe, with plans to expand to other regions in the coming years.

“KitKat has consistently embraced innovation, centered around its iconic ‘Have a break, Have a KitKat’. Today, this innovation is brought to life through the ‘Breaks for Good’ initiative that puts cocoa farmers at the centre of our product through our income accelerator programme,” commented Corinne Gabler, Head of Confectionery and Ice Cream at Nestlé. “We couldn’t think of a better brand than KitKat to represent our efforts to create meaningful impact in cocoa communities.”

The KitKat “Breaks for Good” will be available on store shelves starting from January 2024 in 27 European countries, and from May 2024, in the UK and Ireland. In addition, a limited-edition KitKat, with 70% dark chocolate that is also made with cocoa sourced from the income accelerator, has been launched in the UK market as a pilot.

“Cargill is committed to supporting Nestlé’s longer-term goals and their progress on delivering the Income Accelerator Programme,” commented Michiel van der Bom, Product Line Director Cocoa & Chocolate Europe West Africa, Cargill. “As a partner on Nestlé’s sustainability journey, we are implementing solutions to source sustainable ingredients for Nestlé in ways that help restore the environment, support families, and increase incomes. Through our partnership, we are building a stronger, more resilient supply chain together.”

“We’re delighted to collaborate with Nestlé on their journey towards sustainable cocoa sourcing,” said Thierry Touchais, Manager, Strategic Accounts at the Rainforest Alliance. “It’s encouraging to find a company of this scale using a ‘mixed identity preserved’ model in which cocoa can be traced back to Rainforest-Alliance-certified farmers engaged in Nestlé’s income accelerator. The approach showcases the potential for positive change in the industry.”

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Nestlé says it wants to concentrate on its biggest brands, with the modernisation of its York and Halifax sites allowing it to produce 500,000 more Kit Kat products a day, according to a report by The Grocer.

It appears there are no immediate plans to rationalise the range and cut other, less successful lines, the future of many of the 200 products currently produced at the factory is uncertain.

The Fawdon factory produces many of what Nestlé calls its “smaller, low-growth brands”, such as Rolo, Munchies and Fruit Pastilles. Production will now be split between Halifax and other European sites. These popular lines will continue, the closure of Fawdon could signal the prioritisation of fewer, but bigger, brands by the corporate giant.

Nestlé’s three fastest-growing brands in 2020 were Aero, Kit Kat and Smarties. They shot up £22.8m, £14.1m and £7.6m respectively [NielsenIQ, 52 w/e 26 December 2020].

Other smaller brands like Lion, Quality Street, Yorkie and Dairy Box saw a slump in sales. Nestlé has concentrated innovation efforts on the big-hitters. In the past year, the vegan Kit-Kat has been launched – KitKat V. A dark chocolate version of Aero also appeals to the vegan market, as Nestle explores new customer trends.

Many of these big brand names are part of the public consciousness –  Rolos, Munchies, Fruit Pastilles, Fruit Gums and Matchmakers are all much loved brands, although they are not as high-profile as the Kit Kat.

While the 600 UK jobs under threat, many will also be hoping Nestlé doesn’t focus on big brands to the detriment of its smaller lines. Meanwhile in Ireland, Nestle appears to be continuing to flourish, with no indication of any change (at the time of writing).

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Most emissions occur when producing KitKat’s ingredients like cocoa and milk. The brand will reduce these emissions as much as possible through initiatives like restoring forests and supporting a transition to regenerative agriculture.

For any emissions that cannot be eliminated, the brand will invest in high quality offsetting based on natural climate solutions.

KitKat is working with The Carbon Trust, a global climate change and sustainability consultancy, to measure the brand’s current carbon footprint and will complete this process later in 2021.

Protecting and restoring forests

Deforestation is one of the main global drivers of carbon emissions in the agricultural supply chain. Nestlé has used a variety of tools for the last ten years, including certification, supply chain mapping and satellite imagery, to achieve its no-deforestation commitment.

Furthermore, Nestlé is focusing on forest conservation and restoration. For example, it published an action plan in 2019 to help protect and restore forests in its cocoa supply chain. Earlier this month, Nestlé joined forces with other organisations to launch the Rimba Collective.   This initiative supports the protection and restoration of more than 500,000 hectares of tropical forest landscapes in Southeast Asia, where the company sources its ingredients.

Expanding regenerative agriculture

KitKat will expand its work with cocoa, palm oil, cereals, sugar and dairy farmers to implement regenerative practices. Farming methods such as reducing synthetic inputs, better management of soils and tree planting can help draw down carbon from the atmosphere, enhance biodiversity and boost on-farm productivity. To support this,  KitKat will help farmers plant five million shade trees where it sources its cocoa by 2025.

Accelerating the transition to renewable electricity

KitKat is working to improve the environmental footprint of its factories. It has already reduced the energy required to produce KitKat by more than 40% per tonne of product since 2000.

Nestlé is using renewable electricity at some KitKat manufacturing sites and  will continue to find new ways to end dependency on fossil fuels and use 100% renewable electricity for all KitKat factories before the end of 2025.

Building on more than a decade of action 

KitKat has a history of improving the sustainability of its supply chain that dates back more than a decade.  In 2009, Nestlé launched the Nestlé Cocoa Plan and by 2016, KitKat  sourced 100% of its cocoa from the programme. Under the Plan, Nestlé has planted more than 15 million cocoa trees and invested CHF 300 million (€272 million) in cocoa sustainability.

The new KitKat carbon neutral pledge complements the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce its environmental footprint further. Nestlé is committed to reaching net zero emissions everywhere by no later than 2050, throughout its value chain.

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