Ferrero Group: Farming Sustainability as Resilience Driver
Ferrero has released its Sustainability Report for its 2024/2025 financial year, exploring how the company is turning its goals into actionable insights and subsequent progress.
By working on its sourcing strategies, the company is gaining greater traceability and visibility into its supply chains, resulting in greater resilience.
Following a turbulent time for cocoa and coffee prices, having strategies in place for mitigating risk is vital – closer supplier collaboration has proven to be key for ongoing operations.
Ferrero's standards
As Ferrero celebrates its 80th anniversary, it has released its latest sustainability report, detailing how the company has implemented responsible initiatives across its value chain.
The company is aiming to support sustainable end-to-end food systems, from the sourcing of ingredients in farms, to its factories, products and people. The Ferrero Farming Values framework helps the company drive resilience across its supply chains and source ingredients more responsibly.
It uses a long-standing sacco conosciuto philosophy, known as 'knowing what is in the bag', to encourage visibility and clarity across all processes. The farming values are based on five core elements, driving responsibility and high standards across the chain:
- Supplier due diligence
- Supply chain traceability and visibility
- Certification and standards
- Farming practices and communities
- Sector transformation
Through these core values, Ferrero is ensuring its value chain meets modern expectations and has the visibility integrated throughout to ensure visibility at all times.
"Ferrero’s long-term success remains closely linked to the wellbeing of the people and ecosystems on which our supply chain depends. Consumers are increasingly looking for brands they can trust — built on quality, good sourcing practices, careful manufacturing and a genuine commitment to people and the planet," says Giovanni Ferrero, President of Ferrero Group.
"Guided by our purpose and long-term vision, we will continue supporting initiatives related to the protection of natural resources, the support of our people, communities and partners and the creation of products that delight consumers for generations to come."
Risk mitigation
Ferrero is prioritising collaboration with stakeholders to tackle some of the challenges the company face – particularly when they are persistent and deep-rooted concerns. Through this collaboration, the company is developing a flexible framework which explores the specific risks that the company's supply chain faces. Key ingredients which are being examined include palm oil, cocoa, hazelnuts, coffee and dairy.
Through looking at responsible sourcing methods and developing risk mitigation strategies for the core ingredients, Ferrero is actively protecting itself against volatility. To keep up with demand, businesses like Ferrero need to accurately predict supply and be prepared for shifts in this – such as extreme weather events resulting in rot or damaged crops.
By implementing sustainable practises into its operations, the company is reducing its impact on the planet, which reduces the environmental impact on its crops and production capabilities.
"Ferrero Farming Values translates our sustainability approach into concrete actions across the sourcing of our key ingredients," adds Lapo Civiletti, Chief Executive Officer of Ferrero Group.
"It provides a structured framework to strengthen supplier accountability, improve traceability and certification, support farmers and drive collaboration across the sector — while allowing us to adapt to the specific realities of each ingredient supply chain."
More sustainable sourcing
It is working to source its ingredients more sustainably, through a range of methods including traceability. Cocoa has reached a 98% traceability to farm polygon maps, palm oil is at 98.6% to plantation and coffee beans have reached 100% traceability to plantation polygon maps.
Approximately 230,000 supply chain polygons – or boundaries – have been analysed through Ferrero's EUDR-aligned monitoring process, which contributes to its deforestation-free sourcing through its increased visibility levels.
It is also supporting farming communities through new partnerships, with an expansion on its Save the Children program in Côte d’Ivoire. By 2030, this will aim to reach 235 cocoa-producing communities.
Ferrero is tackling its emissions and waste production, encouraging a more circular economy through its updated packaging. This is saving costs and emissions, demonstrating benefits of more responsible practices.
The company has designed 92.9% of overall packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, and it has contributed towards a 14.7% reduction in plastic-to-product ratio than the 2019/2020 baseline.
By working collaboratively to include partners and farmers in its decisions, Ferrero is demonstrating how shared voices can make an impact in operations and emissions. The company is working to integrate sustainability throughout its supply chain, with more thoughtful sourcing practises and more responsible operations.
