Chocolate is a rich, delicious and wonderful food that has brought joy to so many people all over the world. In America alone, 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate are consumed every single year.  That’s an average of 11 pounds of chocolate per person.  Needless to say, most of us really love chocolate!  So, just how much do we really love chocolate?  Well to give you some more context, American’s eat 22 pounds of candy per year, which means chocolate makes up fifty percent of all candy eaten by American’s each year. 

As a bulk chocolate supplier, that’s music to our ears!  Weaver Nut Company is proud to be in the wholesale chocolate business.  Chocolate is such a decadent and delectable treat that has a unique taste that can’t be easily replicated.  With all of the magnificent things you could say about chocolate it does come at a cost.

 

Sustainability is a challenge that more and more companies are dealing with and is quickly becoming a topic that consumers are concerned about.  As excellent as chocolate is, it’s not without issues when it comes to the ingredients needed to produce it.  Some of the ingredients used to make chocolate can come from sources that don’t always have the best practices with regards to sustainability.  Whether it is the ingredients themselves being grown and produced or the people who are harvesting them, sustainability comes in to play with it all.  So, why is it important?

 

There are a lot of things that are impacted from the production of chocolate.  For example, the cocoa used to produce chocolate comes from the cacao tree.  These cacao trees are very delicate and require constant care to produce any meaningful yield.  It takes an entire year to produce enough cacao seeds from a single tree to make one pound of chocolate. Cacao trees only have an average lifespan of about twenty-five years before they stop producing cacao pods.  At that point, they must be replanted and this often happens on new land.  This is a huge driver for deforestation where rainforest land will be cleared out and can change the geological landscape of an already fragile ecosystem.  The Ivory Coast produces nearly sixty six percent of the world’s cocoa and has lost nearly eighty percent of its forests over the last 50 years according to an excerpt from insider.com.

 

There is also the affect that unsustainable practices have on people.  Millions of people work in various parts of the world to source ingredients to make chocolate.  In many cases, the laborers that supply the ingredients work long days in unsafe work conditions and for little to no pay.  Often times, children are used to work the fields and plantations and can even be trafficked from one country to another to work off debt or become slaves.  While these problems are not easy ones to fix, efforts are being made to move towards sustainability by many companies. 

 

Weaver Nut Company wants to give consumers a choice when it comes to the products they buy and we like to provide options for customers who have concerns about sustainability in the industry.  Weaver Nut Company partners with many wonderful suppliers for our bulk foods and wholesale products.  While not everything we sell comes from companies who have a large focus on sustainability, there are some who are taking steps in that direction. 

 

One such supplier we work with is Barry Callebaut who has pledged to make numerous efforts over the years to start a movement.  It is their hope to lead by example and bring awareness to the problems that face the chocolate industry, so that other companies can also begin to have sustainable practices.  Barry Callebaut has a goal of making all of their products with one hundred percent sustainable ingredients by 2025.

 

Weaver Nut Company is proud to have been in business since 1975 and has seen many changes throughout the years.  As part of our pledge to serve customers with quality, integrity, and enthusiasm, we are doing our part to make consumers aware of why it is important to buy sustainable chocolate. 

 

Feel free to contact us with any questions, comments or concerns you may have.