Sustainability and Cocoa Trace

Bedré’s Commitment to Cacao Farmers & Our Planet

At Bedré Fine Chocolate, every ounce of our milk and dark chocolate is certified by Cacao Trace, a globally recognized sustainability program that ensures not only fully traceable cacao sourcing, but direct farmer support in the West African communities that cultivate, harvest and ferment Bedré’s cocoa.

Our Commitment

This isn’t just a “sustainable line” of products or a marketing ploy. As a Chickasaw Nation company it’s part of our stewardship, community responsibility, and sustainable sourcing efforts.  That is why all of our dark and milk chocolate products carry Cacao Trace certification. It’s also what our customers like you expect; an ethical product that does right by the people who make it possible. Cacao Trace is the real deal, doing substantial measurable good for our farmers. Read on to learn more.

What is Cacao Trace 

Founded in 2014 and partnered with Bedré Fine Chocolate since 2018, Cacao Trace has worked with more than 24,000 cacao farmer families across the world’s cacao growing regions, working to build a sustainable cocoa future. That work is far-reaching covering seven principles:

Cacao Trace’s Principles

Problems Facing the Cacao Industry

As long as cacao has been grown for global demand the industry has struggled with deforestation, inconsistent products, and – most importantly – farmers who live in poverty and rely on forced child labor to cultivate, harvest, and process their cacao trees. Bedré Fine Chocolate and Cacao Trace have partnered to combat these problems with real measurable changes, plus full traceability from bars all the way back to beans. For any chocolatier or farmer to become Cacao Trace-certified, a three-year vetting process is required plus annual external re-verification audits conducted by Control Union.

What Cacao Trace & Bedré Fine Chocolate Are Doing

In addition to its tracing programs, Cacao Trace provides a quality premium for farmers by determining their local living income reference price (LIRP) and ensuring a living income for each farmer. This amounts to approximately two to five months of extra income per year! On top of the quality premium, 5¢ per pound sold also goes back into their local community to fund local education, health and well-being projects.

Measurable Impact

Bedré’s Impact

Through your support, Bedré Fine Chocolate has been able to impact our cacao farmers with Chocolate Bonuses and Quality Premiums that made all the following possible:

Cacao Trace Worldwide

Since its founding in 2014, Cacao Trace has made possible across all of its cacao farms:

This partnership improves the imbalance in profit-sharing throughout the value chain. It's a way chocolate lovers like you can make a positive difference in the lives of our cacao farmers. When you buy Bedré Fine Chocolate products you are supporting the long-term supply of chocolate, while directly helping to improve the lives of our cacao farmers.

Cacao Trace & Fairtrade: What’s the Difference?

Both Cacao Trace and Fairtrade approach the chocolate-making industry with the same intent to support farmers. They both do this by working to ensure farmers are treated well, and receive a fair, livable wage. The reason Bedré Fine Chocolate has chosen to work with Cacao Trace is that Cacao Trace also adds full supply chain traceability, which helps us ensure a final product that is as ethically sourced as it is consistently delicious.

How Bedré’s Chocolate is Made

Cacao Tree
The Cacao tree only grows in the tropics, and yields about 30 pods with around 35 beans per pod. Each pound of finished cocoa requires about 12 cacao pods.

Tree Care
These delicate trees live in the understory of tropical forests, and require taller trees around them to protect them from extreme heat. Rather than clearcutting rainforest and planting trees, through Cacao Trace, Bedré’s farmers use agroforestry principles to sustainably grow and protect these trees. This reduces pressure on existing resources, helps reduce soil erosion and protects young cocoa plants.

Ripening
Farmers monitor pods for ripeness and harvest each pod at the same level of ripeness to ensure consistency in the finished product. This can differ even among the same tree!

Pod Cracking & Sorting
After harvesting pods, they are opened and de-stemmed without breaking the cocoa beans inside. The beans are then sorted, removing any black, rotten or germinated beans.

Fermentation
Bedré’s farmers use fermentation processes which are optimized to regional geography and cocoa types. They beans spend about 5 days in a wooden box, covered with mats or banana leaves. The beans’ pulp naturally heats up and causes fermentation. Much like wine, fermentation results in the development of complex aromas and flavors

Drying Off
When fermentation is complete, the beans are gently and naturally sun-dried for up to 11 days. This natural approach means no extra energy is used and no new flavors are introduced

Roasting
This is what separates cacao from cocoa. Cocoa gets roasted low and slow, which reduces acidity, mellows out the flavor and evokes delicate nuances.

Separation
The cocoa solids become cocoa powder, and cocoa butter is extracted.

Chocolate is Born
After separation, our Belgian partner uses our proprietary recipe to craft specially formulated wafers, which are then delivered to our manufacturing facility in Davis, Oklahoma.

Final Products
Our final bars, meltaways, chocolate-covered snacks and all of our milk and dark chocolate products are fully Cacao Trace-certified and crafted in our Davis, Oklahoma chocolate factory.