#40 Belinda Christine Borck: Tony's Chocolonely's Journey to Transform the Industry - A Chocolate Revolution

Listen to Belinda Christine Borck, Global Public Policy Coordinator at the Dutch-based chocolate producer Tony's Chocolonely.

In this episode, you’ll learn more about Tony’s mission to make 100% slave free the norm in all chocolate worldwide. Founder Teun van de Keuken picked the name “Chocolonely” to encapsulate his “lonely fight against inequality in the chocolate industry”.

The company has changed the standard square piece format of the chocolate bar to an unequally divided piece to symbolise the unequally divided cocoa supply chain.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about:

How chocolate companies can combat systemic poverty by ensuring that farmers and producers in their supply chain are paid a living wage
The importance of traceability as a base for companies to take responsibility for their potential negative impacts
The role of legislations such as the EU Deforestation Regulation, the EU Forced Labour Regulation or the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive to enhance transparency and address human rights and environmental violations
Tony’s Open Chain and how collaborating on cocoa does not impede competition on chocolate

“For Tony's, it was a lonely fight in the chocolate industry. To overcome that, we started an initiative to take responsibility together: Tony’s Open Chain. Companies can come together and source cocoa via the same supply chain. However, just because we collaborate on cocoa does not mean we cannot compete on chocolate.”

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Belinda Christine Borck in Frankly Speaking