Grameen Foundation — in partnership with Barry Callebaut, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products — has launched a five-year program in the Davao region of the Philippines that is designed to improve 25,000 smallholder farmers' copra production and incomes and connect them to markets, while ensuring positive social and environmental impacts.

The Sustainable Coconut Project is funded by Barry Callebaut, in support of its Sustainable Coconut Oil Strategy and the Sustainable Coconut Oil Charter.

Coconut oil, produced from copra, is found in most confectionery products. Currently, coconut production is unable to keep up with global demand. In the Philippines, aging trees, fragmented and untraceable supply chains, pests, diseases, and climate change contribute to low production.

Filipino coconut farmers' yields and incomes suffer from poor extension support, low adoption of GAPs or good agricultural practices, lack of access to technology and financial services, and low resilience to natural disasters.

While farm cooperatives work to support coconut farmers, their effectiveness is compromised by low adoption of digital tools, lack of financial and operational resources, and failure to include female farmers.

"The Sustainable Coconut program will leverage Grameen's extensive experience improving the productivity, income, and resilience of Filipino coconut farmers, as well as our wide range of digital solutions and training content, to comprehensively address the barriers cooperatives and farmers face," said Brent Chism, interim president and CEO of Grameen Foundation.

Grameen began the program earlier this year with a baseline and market assessment in the Davao region, where they'll be working with eight cooperatives, 35 field agents, and 25,000 farmers.