Together with industry peers in the coconut industry, AAK partners up in The Sustainable Coconut Partnership network, to unitedly tackle challenges in the upstream supply chain and create a long-lasting impact for a more sustainable coconut industry.
The partnership was formed to collaboratively find solutions towards a responsible and resilient coconut sector that drives positive impact for farmers, livelihoods, the climate, and the environment and solve a generational challenge of sustainability for millions of coconut farmers.
The Partnership is supported by The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and BSR. Founding companies include Nestlé, Unilever, AAK, Barry Callebaut, Ferrero, JDE, LDC, Lipsa, Loacker, Oleofats, Procter and Gamble, TM Duche, and Upfield.
“As founding partners, we see this partnership as a significant and groundbreaking milestone for a more sustainable coconut industry. In partnering with our industry peers, we look forward to tackling the challenges we see, especially in the upstream supply chain, and creating long-lasting impact for a more sustainable planet.”, says Jass Khaw, Global Sustainability Lead Tropical Oils at AAK.
About The Sustainable Coconut Partnership network:
The Sustainable Coconut Partnership Initially dubbed “The Roundtable on Sustainable Coconut”, began as a meeting series in 2019. It brought together over 80 buyers, processors and other actors actively involved in coconut supply chains, representing more than 40% of the industry, to collaboratively find solutions and share investment approaches to establish cost-effective sustainable coconut value chains and support farmer livelihoods. In November 2020, in consultation with more than 100 industry organizations and civil society groups, agreed on broad areas of improvement for the coconut industry through the Sustainable Coconut Charter. The Charter defines coconut sustainability, outlining areas of focus, principles and outcomes expected from sustainability programs in coconut supply chains.
Through 2021, and with the support from GIZ and US Aid, a multi stakeholder taskforce comprised of members of the industry and civil society, reviewed plans, and made recommendations to form this partnership after many roundtable participants collectively called to establish a formal impact driven platform agreeing that the industry and stakeholders need to dedicate further pre-competitive investments to advance a responsible and resilient coconut sector. The partnership now kicks off with an important part of this group as active members who are taking this next impact-oriented step of joining the partnership and enabling new projects. It plans to extend its membership beyond the current group. The extended community who connects regularly to webinars and attends events counts almost 500 professionals and it is just getting started.