The 2025 Cocoa Barometer, just released by the VOICE Network and its international partners, remains the most important global reference study for sustainability in the cocoa sector.
The 2025 edition – the most extensive to date – spans over 200 pages and delivers not only an in-depth assessment of the current situation, but also a thorough review of developments since the year 2000 and a forward-looking perspective on future risks and opportunities for cocoa communities worldwide. Published by the VOICE Network, a coalition of more than 30 organizations from 13 countries, including Good Chocolate Hub as an active member, the report compiles insights and research from across the sector to guide meaningful change.
The Cocoa Barometer delivers the most comprehensive insight yet into a sector marked by record-high prices, crop failures, and climate shocks. Despite these ongoing challenges, the report shows that many small-scale farmers continue to struggle with poverty, climate stress, crop losses, and unfair trading conditions. Poverty remains a key driver of deforestation, child labour, and gender inequality, with today’s short-term production boom risking another cycle of future price crashes.
The report also warns that recent political backlash in the EU could threaten progress on environmental and human rights due diligence regulations at a critical time for the sector. Despite these challenges, the Cocoa Barometer insists that systemic change is possible with strong collaboration and courageous regulation. Celebrating 15 years of the VOICE Network, the report outlines the tangible progress made and what still needs to be done.
The key calls to action in the 2025 report:
- Ensure fair pay and living incomes for farmers
- Protect forests through global moratorium and cacao-driven deforestation
- Equal participation for women and men in decision-making processes
- Transparency and accountability throughout the supply chains.