Two brands with a mission have found each other: Ben & Jerry’s is going to source its cocoa fairly through the Tony’s Chocolonely platform. The two companies are also launching several new products together.
Slave-free chocolate
One company uses ice cream to change the world, the other uses chocolate to do so: a collaboration was bound to happen. And indeed: Ben & Jerry’s has now joined Tony’s Open Chain, the initiative through which Tony’s Chocolonely helps other chocolate makers to make their supply chains sustainable, transparent and fair. In this way, they are following in the footsteps of retailers like like Albert Heijn and Aldi.
Tony’s wants to make slave-free chocolate the norm and is therefore establishing direct, long-term relationships with cocoa farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, who will receive a higher price and additional support. After all, there are too many abuses in the cocoa sector, such as ‘modern’ slavery, illegal child labour and deforestation.
International visibility
This year, Ben & Jerry’s will start converting all the cocoa in their ice cream mix to traceable cocoa, sourced through Tony’s Open Chain. The ice cream brand was already paying cocoa farmers a Fairtrade premium, supplemented by the price of a living wage, but this partnership takes it a step further. From now on the company knows exactly which cocoa cooperatives the purchased cocoa beans come from and pays an extra premium to support the farmers.
For Tony’s Chocolonely, the new partnership not only means extra cocoa volumes, but also greater international visibility.
‘Love A-Fair’
Both companies celebrate their romance with the launch of four new ‘Love A-Fair’ products. Ben & Jerry’s will introduce a new flavour in early October featuring the most popular Tony’s Chocolonely variant: milk caramel sea salt. This flavour will also be available in a vegan version.
For its part, Tony’s Chocolonely will launch two new Love A-Fair bars, inspired by two famous Ben & Jerry’s flavours: the Dark Milk Brownie (inspired by the Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream) and the White Strawberry Cheesecake (inspired by the Strawberry Cheese ice cream). These bars will appear in shops in early 2023.
