好时（Hershey）Kiss巧克力远比乍看之下复杂。生产这种食品及其他巧克力糖果所需的可可大都产于西非，经过漫长的供应链，万里迢迢地来到美国工厂。

    好时这样的财富500强巨头必须为整条供应链上的每一个环节担负起责任，如今，这种情况更是无以复加。1月30日，好时宣布，计划投入1,000万美元，用于在2017年前解决西非可可种植园中的童工问题。这笔资金还将帮助农民们获得教育培训，提高可可产量。

    好时的这一最新举措属于各方面为保护可可供应链而协同努力的一环。从2000年世界可可基金会（the World Cocoa Foundation）成立之日起，这一战役就已经打响。该基金会促使包括好时及其竞争对手玛氏（Mars）、雀巢（Nestlé）和卡夫（Kraft）在内的大型巧克力公司与可可生产国的政府和农户携起手来。

    大公司注重的是增长和利润，这两个数据与外国小农的生活状况并没有必然联系。可是，可可生产具有的一些特征使得可持续发展对巧克力行业具有至关重要的意义。

可可是怎样炼成的

    要维持可可的持续生产，就要求彼此竞争的企业展开合作，共同帮助农民，这谈何容易。“全球包装糖果行业的竞争极为激烈，”好时在2010年财报中写道：“一些竞争对手规模比我们大得多，拥有的资源多得多，在国际市场的实力也更为强大。”

    不过，巧克力厂商的确存在共同利益，如果农民们能生产更多可可，所有业内巨头都会得益。市场需求正在增长。随着印度和中国等国日趋富裕，这两个国家的中产阶级正在蓬勃壮大，这个阶层的新成员对咖啡和巧克力等奢侈性商品的胃口也日益显现。

    同时，各大厂商还需密切关注环境和政治问题对可可收成的威胁。可可只适合在赤道气候中生长，因此能种植可可的土地有限。受病虫害侵害，每年有三分之一的可可树颗粒无收。可可出产国政治形势的不稳定也会进一步加剧市场的动荡。例如，科特迪瓦贡献了全球可可产量的三分之一。2011年，该国的一次地方性选举引发政治动荡，导致政府暂停一切出口。可可供应因此受限，价格也随之暴涨。

    为了保证供给，企业必须直接与当地农民接触。举例来说，好时去年引入了一项称为可可链（COCOALINK）的项目。鉴于多数农民已有手机，该项目通过短信向农民发送气候和害虫防控信息。“我们已经看到了真正与农民打交道、向其提供最可靠信息的裨益，”好时公关副总裁安德鲁•麦克科米克表示。“初步结果显示，这将在几年内使可可产量翻一番。”

    巧克力厂商还在尝试其他形式的社区活动。2009年，多家企业与比尔及梅琳达盖茨基金会（the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation）携手，通过一个4,000万美元规模的计划，来改善可可生产地区的教育，并改进可可的种植方法。

    A Hershey's Kiss is more complicated than it looks. Most of the cocoa in it and other chocolate candies comes from West Africa, and it makes its way through a long supply chain to get to U.S. factories.

    Now more than ever, Fortune 500 companies such as Hershey (HSY) have to take responsibility for every link in that chain. On January 30, Hershey announced plans to put $10 million towards solving child labor problems on West African cocoa farms by 2017. The money should also help farmers access educational programs and improve their cocoa yield.

    Hershey's latest move is part of a larger effort to secure the cocoa supply chain, a campaign that began with the founding of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) in 2000. The WCF joined big chocolate companies -- including Hershey and its competitors Mars, Nestlé, and Kraft (KFT) -- with governments and farmers in cocoa-producing nations.

    Big businesses run on growth and profit, two figures that aren't necessarily linked to the well-being of small farmers in foreign countries. But certain characteristics of cocoa may put the chocolate industry in a sweet spot for sustainable development.

What goes into making our cocoa

    Sustainable cocoa development requires competing companies to work together to help farmers, no small hurdle. "The global confectionery packaged goods industry is intensely competitive," Hershey said in its 2010 annual report. "Some of our competitors are much larger firms that have greater resources and more substantial international operations."

    But there is common ground. All industry players benefit if farmers produce more cocoa. Market demand is growing. As nations like India and China grow wealthier, new members of their burgeoning middle classes have developed an appetite for luxury goods such as coffee and chocolate.

    At the same time, companies are keeping an eye on environmental and political threats to cocoa yields. Space to grow cocoa is limited; it only thrives in equatorial climates. About a third of the crop grown every year is trashed because of pests and disease. Unstable political conditions in cocoa-producing nations also adds to the volatility in the market. Cote d'Ivoire, for example, produces over a third of the world's cocoa. In 2011, political unrest surrounding a local election caused the government to cease all exports, which limited the cocoa supply and sent cocoa prices skyward.

    Companies need to get on the ground to ensure their supply. Hershey, for example, introduced a program called COCOALINK in 2011. COCOALINK distributes information about climate and pest control via SMS to farmers with cell phones, which most of them already have. "We're starting to see the benefits when you really get to the farmers and give them the best information," says Andrew McCormick, the vice president of public affairs at Hershey. "The preliminary results are that it will double crop yields in a couple of years."

    Chocolate companies are also working on other kinds of community outreach. In 2009, several companies joined the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation on a $40 million project to boost education and improve farming practices in cocoa-growing regions.

    可可产量的提高还能以其他方式造福当地社区。例如，可可树会消耗土壤营养成分，因此与其他作物间种时长势更好。这意味着，与可可树健康生长有利益关系的厂商需要与当地政府和非政府组织合作，从整体上去鼓励可持续农业，而不是只盯着可可。

    扶持当地社区的教育事业也会帮助巧克力厂商。世界可可基金会总裁比尔•古伊顿表示，可可种植者的平均年龄大概是50岁。在理想情况下，教育计划可以保证，20年之后将有整整一代可可种植者为这些公司效力。

    教育是双向的。“坦率地说，我们在西非的实际存在没有达到应有的水平，”好时公关副总裁麦克科米克称，不过，可可链中就包含了在西非设立研发中心的计划。“为了研制新的产品配方，我们对可可进行了许多研究。我们将会用好旗下的种植园，使我们的科学家能与农民和土地更紧密地联系起来。”

慈善与企业利益能否兼得？

    对巧克力厂商来说，上述措施显然具有商业上的价值，可对当地农民来说，究竟有多大帮助呢？巧克力行业在西非的历史并不光彩。世界可可基金会成立之际，也就是2000年左右，美国国会获得的报告显示，西非可可种植园存在严重违反反童工法的现象。某些案例中，有第三方用卡车将儿童成批运地送到生产可可的地区。据报道，许多儿童遭到压榨，被迫工作却拿不到报酬。还有一些从事可可种植的家庭鼓励孩子一起到园中工作，挥舞砍刀、接触农药，往往使孩子们置于危险的境地。

    仅靠巧克力厂商确保反童工法颇为困难，但它们有义务为此付出努力。“企业应该在童工问题中发挥一定的作用，他们也确实在这么做，”盖伊顿说。“这是企业与非洲各国政府以及存在问题的地区共同的责任。”

    不过，共担责任可能会使标准的推行相当困难。如果当地政府没有满足美国标准的反童工法律，情况就更为复杂了。消费者和非政府组织对企业提高透明度的呼声越来越强烈，因此大公司（在这方面）的投资对公司有好处。从生意角度来看，这些公司承担不起诉讼和负面报道的后果。

    尼日利亚大学（the University of Nigeria）经济学教授、布鲁金斯非洲增长中心（the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative）的研究员奥斯塔•奥格布指出，财富500强中那些渴求可可的公司可以成为有益的力量。他说：“一切有助于提高可可种植者生产效率，既能提高农村居民收入，同时又致力于解决环境问题的东西我们都欢迎。”

    此外，成功推行慈善事业也要求营利性组织、非政府组织、当地人民和政府通力合作，而这正是巧克力行业追求的。

    不过，只有巧克力厂商拓展思路，不再局限于帮助农民，而是开始在当地生产巧克力，可持续发展才能取得真正的进展。奥格布指出，只有这样才能为西非国家带来更多利润，创造更多就业机会。“有没有可能，可可种植者的子女不再当农民，而是在巧克力工厂工作？”他认为，那将标志着真正符合可持续标准的Kiss问世。

    译者：小宇

    Improving cocoa yields can help communities in other ways. For example, the crop depletes the soil of nutrients, so it grows best on plots with other plants. This means that companies with a vested interest in healthy cocoa need to work with governments and NGOs to encourage sustainable farming in general, not just for cocoa.

    Companies also benefit from supporting education in local communities. The average age of cocoa farmers is about fifty, says Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation. In an ideal situation, education programs can ensure that there is a generation of cocoa farmers for these corporate players to work with 20 years from now.

    Education goes both ways. "Candidly, we don't have as big of a physical presence in West Africa as we should," says Hershey's McCormick. But part of COCOALINK involves setting up research centers in West Africa. "We're doing a heck of a lot of cocoa research for future product formulations," he says. "We're going to use our farm to get our scientists closer to the farmers and the farm."

Philanthropy vs. taking care of business: room for both?

    There's clearly a business case for companies, but how far will these efforts go towards helping farmers? The chocolate industry has an ugly history in West Africa. Around 2000, when the WCF formed, Congress received reports of serious violations of child labor laws on West African cocoa farms. In some cases, third parties were trucking children in to cocoa-producing regions and reports said that many kids were exploited and forced to work without pay. In other cases, cocoa-farming families encouraged children to work with them in the fields, often putting them in dangerous situations: wielding machetes, exposure to pesticides.

    It can be difficult for companies alone to enforce child labor laws, but they will have to push to do so. "Companies do need to play a role in the child labor issue and they are," Guyton says. "It's a shared responsibility with the African governments and also the communities where it happens."

    But sharing responsibility can make it difficult to enforce standards, especially when governments don't have child labor laws that meet U.S. standards. Big corporate investment could deliver benefits because of increased transparency demands from consumers and NGOs. From a business standpoint, these companies can't afford lawsuits and bad public exposure.

    Fortune 500 cocoa-hungry companies stand to be a force for good, says Osita Ogbu, an economics professor at the University of Nigeria and a fellow with the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative. "Anything that improves the productivity of cocoa farmers that increases the rural income, and at the same time addresses environmental scarcity, is welcome," he says.

    And successful philanthropy often requires for-profit organizations, NGOs, local people and governments to work together, a path that the chocolate industry is pursuing.

    But the real step towards sustainability will come when companies expand their thinking beyond helping farmers and start to manufacture chocolate locally. That's where you'll start to see significant profit margins for West Africans and job creation, says Ogbu. "Is it possible that the sons of daughters of cocoa farmers will not be cocoa farmers but will work in chocolate factories?" That, he says, will mark the beginning of a truly sustainable Kiss.