How sustainable is Huel's cocoa?

Yes, JewyB and Liath, I should have put up a reminder before I expressed dissatisfaction.

It happens, i dont think you’re wrong for being a bit annoyed by not being answered, just wanted to play huels advocate :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I think they are fair questions, but I’m not sure if asking the moderator on a forum is the best place to get such in-depth info. I could be wrong though.

I was enjoying my chilled coffee flavoured Huel with a 10g cocoa addition as I read this, and felt quite guilty I hadn’t checked the cocoa for Fairtrade status, it was all legit thankfully…and the shake itself was a taste sensation.

Generally, no. But here, it is.

Fair enough. Usually writing a letter to the company or formal email would have lots of proof and literature sent your way.

Sorry for missing this! Let me ask the right people in the office again and get back to you.

1 Like

Have you, as Huel, been physically present in the very place cocoa is harvested?

No we haven’t been to visit our cocoa farmers. We work with external partners to source our ingredients and manufacture our finished products, which means that we don’t own the farms that grow the ingredients for our products, or the factories that blend and package them. We also don’t have direct contracts with farmers themselves, but instead, buy cocoa powder from a cocoa processor. It is incredibly important to us to make sure that we have partnerships with companies that share the same values as Huel, especially for products like cocoa which is associated with a number of human rights and environmental issues.

In order to ensure that we have the right partners we do the following:

  • We undertake an annual risk assessment for all potential ingredient sourcing countries to identify the likely level of risk for all human rights issues. This risk assessment guides the level of investigation and certification that we require before sourcing from a new supplier;
  • All new suppliers are required to complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire indicating their approach to the protection of human rights within their organisation and supply chain. Any indicators of risk are followed up as appropriate with either a request for further information, a visit, commitment for corrective actions or an independent audit;
  • Huel are members of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) and we use the information available via this platform to assist in identifying and managing risk within our existing ingredient suppliers.

How much do you know about the actual working conditions

From our supplier we know a great deal about the working conditions. We have learnt about the day to day challenges the farmers face, why child labour occurs, the impact of climate change on their harvests and quality, and what kind of systemic changes are needed in order to address these issues. We also look to other sources for information - independent reports, the work of NGOs and international development organisations, investigative journalism and so on. We need to make sure that we know the right questions to ask when we choose our suppliers.

We have an ongoing discussion with our cocoa supplier regarding the protection of human rights within their supply chain. If at any point we feel dissatisfied with the work that they are doing we would look to visit the growers ourselves to assess the situation and if necessary switch to another supplier.
.
Is there a way for you to make sure that workers are not beaten or threatened?

Sadly, there is no way that you can completely ensure the welfare of workers. We wish there was, but without being there 100% of the time it is simply not possible. That is why it is so important to choose the right partner and to make sure that the kind of pressure that might lead to any abuse of human rights (such as poverty, forced labour, lack of equality etc.) are removed from the supply chain. The best way to do this is to pay a fair price, to support farmers with knowledge, technology and access to finance. Our supplier also works with the farming communities to diversify their sources of income to reduce reliance on cocoa - such as bee keeping and intercropping.

Can I read about some specific actions that your supplier took to turn things around?

At this point in time we cannot publicly share the name of our supplier. We are not trying to be difficult or overly secretive - it’s just about protecting details of our recipes and commercial relationships. We can tell you however that our supplier is a board member of the International Cocoa Initiative (https://cocoainitiative.org/), a founding member of the Cocoa and Forests Initiative and a member of the World Cocoa Foundation. They are working directly with cocoa farmers across West Africa and the world to address child labour, farmer productivity and livelihoods, deforestation and many other issues.

What are the 2025 sustainability goals? Which ones have been achieved, if any?

A lot has already been achieved, but there is still a long journey ahead. To date a lot of focus has been on ensuring that accurate monitoring programs are in place to allow complete traceability of the cocoa back to farm, monitoring for child labour, monitoring for deforestation. This has been in addition to the achievements listed above.

7 Likes

I really appreciate your answer, @Dan_Huel. Should I assume that the same is more or less true for coffee beans?

1 Like

Yes, that’s a good assumption :slight_smile:

Once again, thank you for all the information you provided, @Dan_Huel.

1 Like

Hi, David, I did not get the joke. Would you mind explaining it to me, please?

1 Like

Dave’s long gone

Overdosed on Huel berry flavour.

2 Likes

Oh. Thanks for letting me know.

A couple of instances recently of people bumping up age-old posts. It’s easy to misread when the last post was though, so just posting a little lesson here:

Mar '20

= March 2020

Mar 20

= 20th of March in the current year

It is not good forum etiquette to post in threads that are over a year old unless you have something really relevant or important to add. So please double check the date and generally don’t post in old threads.

It’s not a problem and it’s easy to get it wrong! :slight_smile: So don’t worry, I’m just trying to keep the forum tidy! If you have a specific question for someone then you can always DM them.

I apologize, I didn’t know it was not okay.

1 Like

Happy birthday.