Spotlighting Our Sustainability Champions

Sunpress Weekly Bulletin - Issue 23

Sunbeth Global Concepts made significant progress with its sustainability endeavours in 2024. Over the months, we shared numerous updates on all our initiatives, talking about our efforts to promote ethical practices in the cocoa supply chain and preserve the industry’s future while also celebrating our achievements.

However, we haven’t given enough recognition to the main actors orchestrating these results. It’s time we shine a well-deserved spotlight on the people driving these efforts — the Sunbeth Sustainability Team.

These dedicated individuals have been instrumental in our sustainability progress, playing a crucial role in our collective endeavour to meet the requirements for key certifications and advancing our traceability efforts in preparation for the EUDR implementation.

Thanks to their unwavering commitment and determination, Sunbeth Global Concepts has stayed true to its sustainability promises. To recognize their efforts, here’s a highlight of their remarkable accomplishments this year:

Empowering Women Through Vocational Skills

As we’ve done in the past and in line with the 5th sustainable development goal (SDG 5) which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women, one of our key focus areas this year was promoting women's inclusion in society by empowering them. This responsibility fell within the purview of our Sustainability team.

Collaborating with external facilitators, the sustainability team implemented a comprehensive vocational training initiative for female farmers and wives of cocoa farmers in the Idanre community of Ondo State. They showcased their resourcefulness, meticulously handling every detail, from participant organisation to logistical and administrative support, ensuring the program was smooth and impactful.

Thanks to their efforts, no less than 80 women have gained valuable vocational skills which they can leverage to obtain alternative income streams. Empowered by these skills, the women are better able to support their families and elevate their standard of living, creating a ripple effect of positive change in their communities.

The team was also instrumental in the provision of startup support items including tools, raw materials, and finances for select participants of the empowerment program.

Fighting Child Labour Through CLMRS

Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) implementation is a crucial aspect of our sustainability agenda which is also overseen by our sustainability team.

While carrying out this responsibility, the team outdid themselves, going above and beyond as they worked tirelessly across several rural areas to raise awareness about child labour concerns, educate farmers, and implement remediation measures to safeguard children’s futures.

Their efforts have ensured that many children, who might otherwise have been involved in hazardous labour, are now receiving quality education. These children are thriving in school, creating brighter futures for themselves, and stepping confidently toward opportunities that once seemed out of reach.

A beneficiary of the CLMRS in her testimonial shared that the educational support materials such as notebooks, pencils, pens, sharpeners, and a school bag she received from Sunbeth aided the furtherance of her studies. She explained that the school supplies provided helped to ease the financial burden on her parents as it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to afford some of the materials and thanks to the support, she can comfortably remain in school and enjoy quality education with her mates[SF9]?

These efforts by our sustainability team also tie into the 4th sustainable development goal (SDG 4) which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Enhancing Cocoa Production Through Seedling Distribution

One of the biggest challenges the cocoa industry encountered this year was declining output from ageing and diseased cocoa plantations exacerbated by changing climate conditions. Seeing this challenge faced by cocoa farmers and aiming to boost cocoa production, the sustainability team orchestrated the distribution of over 30,000 hybrid, disease-resistant cocoa seedlings to 1,500 farmers across Ondo and Cross River states.

The distributed hybrid seedlings boast an enhanced resistance to common cocoa diseases and the effects of climate change such as erratic rainfall while also having better yield propensities than regular seeds.

This was by no means an easy feat as the activity involved transporting the delicate cocoa seedlings from the nurseries to remote, hard-to-reach areas and coordinating over a thousand farmers over multiple challenging trips.

But all the efforts and hard work were worth it as many farmers now have hybrid cocoa trees growing on their plantations, and can hope for improved yields from these trees in the years to come.

Farmer Education and Training

In August, we hosted a comprehensive farmer’s training program in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance themed "Assess and Address". This significant undertaking was masterminded and overseen by our sustainability team.

The training brought together hundreds of farmers from across Ondo State to learn from industry experts about critical issues such as child labour, forced labour, discrimination, and other unsustainable practices associated with cocoa farming.

Thanks to the efforts of the sustainability team members, particularly, the field officers overseeing the different catchment areas in our cocoa sourcing network, several farmers now have a deeper understanding of crucial sustainability topics and their impact on the cocoa value chain, prompting them to adopt better practices.

Farm Mapping and Traceability for EUDR Compliance

With the looming EUDR implementation, achieving traceability was a pressing concern for several commodities export companies including Sunbeth Global Concepts earlier this year. But thanks to the diligence of our sustainability team members, we are on track to achieving full EUDR compliance before the regulation takes full effect.

Our sustainability team’s efforts in farm plot mapping, farmer registration, and fulfilling other traceability requirements have brought us closer than ever to ensuring that all our outputs are traceable and regulation-compliant.

Celebrating the Efforts of Our Champions

Behind every initiative, milestone, and success story this year stood the unwavering dedication of our Sustainability Champions. Their hard work has not only advanced our sustainability goals but also strengthened our position as a leader in responsible cocoa sourcing.

To our champions: thank you for your outstanding contributions. Your efforts have made this year truly remarkable and paved the way for even greater achievements in the future.