Sunbeth Global Concepts (SGC), one of Africa’s leading agro-commodities exporters, today launched Orange Cocoa, its long-term sustainability framework for the cocoa supply chain.
Built on three pillars, Better Cocoa, Better Life, and Better Planet, the framework sets out specific, measurable commitments to transform the conditions under which cocoa is grown, traded, and sourced across West Africa, with targets running through to 2050.
Cocoa is one of the world’s most traded agricultural commodities, the raw material behind a global industry worth billions of dollars and the primary source of income for millions of smallholder farmers, the vast majority of whom live across West Africa.
Yet for decades, the farmers at the very beginning of that chain have remained its most vulnerable link. Aging farms, unpredictable weather, falling yields, deforestation, child labour, and persistent rural poverty have long threatened the sector’s sustainability.
Orange Cocoa is SGC’s structured, long-term response to these challenges. It is a framework with clear accountability and a genuine commitment to the people and ecosystems that make cocoa possible.
“Orange Cocoa is our structured response to forces that are converging all at once, from regulatory change, to climate pressure, aging farms, and communities that have given so much to this industry and received too little in return. It takes the values we have always operated by and gives them structure, measurable targets, and clear accountability so that progress can be tracked and reported,” said Oyinkansola Owoyemi, Sustainability Director, Sunbeth Global Concepts.
Under the first pillar, Better Cocoa, SGC has committed to training 100,000 farmers in good agricultural and environmental practices by 2040, distributing one million hybrid cocoa seedlings across its sourcing regions, and establishing three regional cocoa quality testing hubs. In 2026 alone, over 60,000 hybrid seedlings will be distributed to farmers in SGC’s network.
The second pillar, Better Life, addresses the human dimension of the supply chain. SGC will implement a Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), committing to ensure that every child identified as being at risk receives and completes an approved remediation plan within twelve months of identification.
Beyond the crop, Orange Cocoa places equal weight on the welfare of the people behind it. For Oyinkansola, this is where the work is most human and most consequential. “You can invest in the finest planting materials and build a technically sound traceability system, but if the farmer on the other end of that system cannot afford to keep his children in school, then we must be honest with ourselves about what we are sustaining. Better Life is built around that honesty. Farmers who are economically stable, supported by their communities, and investing in their land are the ones who produce consistently and stay in the industry long term. Social impact and supply chain security are not separate goals – they are the same goal.”
The third pillar, Better Planet, centres on environmental responsibility. SGC has pledged to plant 300,000 shade trees by 2040 to restore biodiversity and improve soil fertility across cocoa farms.
As an African-owned exporter sourcing directly from the communities it operates in, SGC’s approach to this framework carries a particular weight. Rather than designing sustainability strategy at a distance and implementing it through intermediaries, SGC is building Orange Cocoa from within the origin, with direct accountability to the farmers, cooperatives, and communities that form the foundation of its supply chain.
Orange Cocoa is also a strategic repositioning. The EU Deforestation Regulation places the burden of proof on exporters, requiring verified geolocation data, documented due diligence, and traceability to farm level. For exporters who have not invested in that infrastructure, it represents a genuine threat to market access. Orange Cocoa’s Better Planet pillar commits SGC to exactly the kind of digital traceability infrastructure the regulation demands, positioning Sunbeth ahead of these requirements, rather than in response to them. More broadly, the framework is designed to attract impact investors, unlock climate funding, and open access to premium markets and long-term contracts.
