ReSeed, a leader in nature-based carbon credit solutions, and Dengo Chocolates, a leading Brazilian chocolate brand committed to ethical sourcing, announced their partnership, integrating Dengo’s cacao farmers in Brazil into ReSeed’s Farm Fresh Carbon Credit Program. This marks significant strides in sustainable agriculture and social impact for the cacao industry, while providing companies new avenues to clean supply chains.
Chocolate ranks number two on the list of foods with highest environmental impact, with the majority of the impact attributed to deforestation. Meanwhile, the majority of smallholder farmers, responsible for 75% of the world’s cocoa, live at or below the poverty line. ReSeed and Dengo will partner with smallholder farmers to create an additional revenue stream, carbon credits, that simultaneously incentivizes environmentally-beneficial regenerative agricultural practices.
Employing regenerative agriculture techniques in cacao farming helps to avoid deforestation, increase soil health and crop yields, and draws down carbon from the atmosphere to store it in the ground. The sale of carbon credits holds the potential to significantly improve the livelihoods of Dengo chocolate farmers, with 50% of carbon credit sales going directly to farmers and 30% to on-the-ground farmer support teams. As more credits are traded in the region, there will no longer be a need for additional deforestation to generate extra income for small farmers and traditional communities.
ReSeed partners with smallholder farmers around the globe, bringing carbon credits directly from farmers to the market. Founded in 2022, ReSeed’s carbon credits are the first credits with traceability from beginning to end of lifecycle. Dengo Chocolates, who has a special focus on social impact and sustainability, has so far onboarded 75 farmers onto ReSeed’s Carbon Credit Program at their first partnership period. The farmers will easily be able to track data about the carbon collected and stored in the soil on their land, which ReSeed turns into carbon credits with auditable, third-party verified data and satellite imagery.
By offering carbon credits for sale from cacao farmers, the two companies are creating a giant opportunity for the cacao industry, combining carbon drawdown with social impact. ReSeed carbon credits will create a new revenue stream for Dengo’s farmers and monetize climate-positive agriculture practices. The first carbon credits associated with Dengo cacao farmers will be available for sale in H2 2024.
“According to estimates, 70% of 6.800 km2 of cocoa plantations in the region use the Cabruca system, an agroflorestal system in which cacao trees are cultivated under the shadow of Atlantic Forest. A recent study conducted by WRI, Arapyaú Institute and Dengo shows that a hectare of Cabruca removes almost 2 times more CO2 from the atmosphere than a conventional hectare,” says Estevan Sartoreli, CEO and co-founder of Dengo Chocolates. “We are proud to partner with ReSeed to drive additional capital to Dengo farmers for their ecosystem services.”
“Currently, less than 1% of carbon credits sold on the market are sourced from agriculture. We’re thrilled to partner with Dengo farmers to increase that number,” said Vasco, CEO and co-founder of ReSeed. “The direct incentives from the carbon market to smallholder producers could be the push needed to catalyze reforestation and preservation efforts in the Amazon rainforest and Atlantic Forest – helping reduce deforestation rates while also initiating an explosion of reforestation.”
