ORDER ARTICLE PERMISSIONS/REPRINTS/OFFPRINTS/TEACHING NOTES
To order inspection copies, and/or permissions to include this article in textbooks, edited volumes, course booklets, online/digital course packs, etc., and/or to order multiple individual hard copies for classroom use, please use the secure online payment, or the appropriate form available on the Order Forms page, or alternatively, contact the Publishing Editor, Peter Neilson, pneilson@neilsonjournals.com directly.
Breaking the Chain: Tony’s Chocolonely and the Future of Sustainable Cocoa Supply
Ingrid Molderez
KU Leuven, Belgium
Sabine Jentjens
ISC Paris, France
Hannelore Standaert and Pascale Maas
KU Leuven, Belgium
Volume 20: 2025, pp. 561-578; ABSTRACT
The global cocoa industry continues to grapple with structural poverty, child labour, and environmental degradation. Despite decades of voluntary initiatives and certification schemes, progress toward sustainability has been limited. Founded in 2005, Tony’s Chocolonely positioned itself as an “impact company that makes chocolate” with the mission to make all chocolate 100% slave-free. In 2022 they expanded their focus to commit a wider mission promise, namely “Together we will end exploitation in cocoa”. Its strategy centers on five sourcing principles: living income pricing, long-term relationships, farmer empowerment, productivity improvements, and traceability. These principles are operationalized through tools such as the Living Income Model, BeanTracker, and Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS). In 2019, Tony’s launched Tony’s Open Chain, an open-source initiative inviting competitors and retailers to adopt its sourcing model. For Tony’s Chocolonely this is not contradictory because they “collaborate on cocoa but compete on chocolate”. The case challenges students to analyze whether an alternative business model can realistically drive systemic change in a highly concentrated global value chain, and to evaluate the strategic trade-offs between growth, profitability, and mission integrity in international markets.
Keywords: sustainable supply chains, global value chains, child labour, ethical sourcing.
.jpg)
