Frequently asked
questions

Visit this page to find out more about the steps in Lindt & Sprüngli’s chocolate production.

Since 2008, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program has been our Responsible Sourcing Standard for cocoa. It was developed to address social and environmental impacts in our cocoa supply chain. The Farming Program aims to contribute to resilient livelihoods for cocoa farmers and their families and to promote Good Farming Practices and biodiverse landscapes. It is built on Rainforest Alliance certification and strengthened by targeted investments and activities beyond certification

Access the Farming Program 2026-2030 document to learn more.

High quality cocoa is at the heart of our chocolate. Knowing how the different cocoa flavors of the various origins contribute to the distinctive taste of our chocolate products is a skill that we have perfected over time.

A fundamental distinction is made between consumer and fine flavor cocoa. Consumer cocoa is cocoa with a robust flavor. It accounts for the largest share (90-95%) of total global cocoa production and is farmed mainly in West Africa. Lindt & Sprüngli uses Forastero beans (consumer cocoa), from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

The remaining 5-10% of worldwide cocoa harvests are fine flavor cocoa. Fine flavor cocoa is a high-quality cocoa with nuanced, fine aroma. It is mainly farmed in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lindt & Sprüngli uses fine flavor cocoa beans from Ecuador, Madagascar, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea and Peru.

Find out more about our cocoa origins here.

All Lindt & Sprüngli brands except Russell Stover use cocoa sourced through the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program.

Traceability is a part of our key principles of our Responsible Sourcing Approach for cocoa. This includes establishing traceability from the farm to the first point of purchase (first mile traceability). In 2025, Lindt & Sprüngli achieved 100% first mile traceability four our cocoa products, including beans, butter, powder, and chocolate mass.

Access the glossary to learn more about the traceability levels of the cocoa products we source.

Yes - as of 2026, Lindt & Sprüngli aims for 100% of its Farming Program cocoa volume to be Rainforest Alliance Certified. The Group will continue to lead with the Farming Program as its Responsible Sourcing Standard for cocoa. At the same time,the Rainforest Alliance seal will gradually replace the Farming Program logo on pack, starting with EXCELLENCE and LINDOR and followed by other permanent stock-keeping units. The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-governmental organization that sets its own Sustainable Agriculture Standard.

The Farming Program builds on a foundation for continuous improvement. The Program’s Theory of Change provides this foundation, guiding our strategy and project design in collaboration with leading experts and partners.

The Farming Program’s progress and impact is measured by combining a structured framework for monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) with transparent reporting.

The MEL framework operates at three levels:

1. Rainforest Alliance certification, with third-party audits, sets a standard to verify correct implementation of requirements.
2. Our project partners report at least annually on progress against agreed targets. Compliance with our guidelines and their performance is assessed through reports and, where relevant, field visits.
3. Progress on the Theory of Change is reviewed using field data and remote sensing.

We publish annual updates on scale and progress of the Farming Program in the Lindt & Sprüngli Sustainability Statement, of which select metrics are subject to independent assurance.

Cocoa farmers worldwide are essential for the sustainability and long-term success of our business. However, many cocoa farmers struggle to build resilient livelihoods from growing cocoa. Especially in West Africa, many live below the poverty line and child labor remains a persistent challenge. These issues are complex and systemic — but we believe that bundled interventions, long-term relationships, and collective action can drive meaningful change. The Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program strives to contribute to building resilient livelihoods for farmers, their families, and farming communities. Our goal is to improve the income situation of the farmers in our cocoa value chain, as poverty among cocoa households is one of the underlying root causes of the cocoa sector’s challenges.

In 2025, we invested CHF 35.1 million in the responsible sourcing of cocoa. This includes Farming Program costs and premiums as well as costs for certification and projects with external partners. Not included is the Living Income Differential.

We support the efforts of the governments in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana with a Living Income Differential (LID) of USD 400 per metric ton of cocoa beans. We have purchased our cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’ Ivoire with LID pricing since its introduction in 2019 and will continue to do so.

Lindt & Sprüngli strongly condemns all forms of child labor and systematically investigates suspected cases of child labor. In agricultural value chains, especially in the cocoa sector in West African countries, child labor remains a persistent and complex challenge. Addressing it requires sustained, collaborative efforts from all stakeholders across the sector.

Lindt & Sprüngli employs a tailored strategy to mitigate child labor risks. Our cocoa suppliers⁠ which implement the Farming Program in countries of origin with a risk of child labor⁠ are required to address child labor risks along the cocoa supply chain by implementing our Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation (CLRMS) guidance. For volumes sourced outside the Farming Program, we rely on the requirements of, and verification through, the Rainforest Alliance certification.

Since child labor is a systemic issue, it cannot be solved on a broader scale solely by engaging individual households and supporting individual children in the supply chain. For this reason, we focus our support to children at the community level by investing in high-risk communities and addressing the root causes of child labor, such a lack of access to quality education, farming labor shortages, and household income constraints. As such, we additionally support direct cash transfers for enrolling children in schools to reduce the risk of child labor as part of our Living Income Program.

These efforts build on our commitment to maintain 100% of our cocoa volume from child labor risk countries as covered by a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) or another due diligence system that is being rolled out or is implemented, with Mass Balance included, annually between 2026 and 2030.

Since child labor cannot be tackled by individual organizations alone, and requires ongoing efforts to improve and further develop sector responses, we are a member of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI). We also engage in collective action at origin to strengthen access to quality education, such as the Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF) coalition in Côte d’Ivoire which we joined in 2022 and SCALE (System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence) in Ghana.

CLEF is a coalition dedicated to enhancing access to, and the quality of, education in cocoa-growing regions of Côte d'Ivoire by constructing school infrastructure, training teachers in effective educational practices, and engaging parents in their children’s learning. The coalition is led by the government of Côte d'Ivoire in collaboration with the cocoa and chocolate industry and philanthropic foundations. Joining CLEF entails a financial commitment for Lindt & Sprüngli to invest a total CHF 1.25 million to support the CLEF program running from 2023 to 2027, with the aim of impacting the lives of over 4 million children by 2027. The System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence (SCALE) initiative is designed to strengthen learning systems and educational outcomes in Ghana.

As a company that sources agricultural and forest-based raw materials, Lindt & Sprüngli has an intrinsic relationship with nature, and relies on natural ecosystems. In its endeavors to contribute to the protection and conservation of the biodiversity and ecosystems we rely on for raw materials, Lindt & Sprüngli focuses on working towards no deforestation in its supply chains. Conserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems is also one of the main objectives of the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program for cocoa sourcing.

We commit to working towards no deforestation in cocoa and our other primary deforestation-linked supply chains (palm oil, soy, and pulp- and paper-based packaging). We aim to achieve our no-deforestation commitment through performing risk-based due diligence, sourcing from deforestation-free and legal sources, and working with major suppliers which commit to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct and EUDR specific contractual obligations (as applicable).

Our actions include:

• Gathering supply chain transparency and traceability information
• Assessing deforestation risk of sourcing origins
• Taking actions to mitigate the risk of deforestation linked to our supply chains, such as sourcing certified volumes, engaging our suppliers and investing in landscape initiatives
• Monitoring for cases of non-compliance in our supply chains and providing access to our grievance mechanism, the Lindt & Sprüngli Speak Up Line
• Engaging our suppliers to support effective remediation where and when cases of non-compliance with our standards occur in our supply chain
• Regularly measuring and reporting progress in meeting our commitments

We recognize that eliminating deforestation in commodity supply chains cannot be achieved by Lindt & Sprüngli alone, but requires ongoing collaboration within the sector with our suppliers as well as peers and other stakeholders to address systemic issues and develop common solutions.

Find further information in our latest Sustainability Statement and in our No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Progress Report.

Lindt & Sprüngli monitors its raw materials through extensive laboratory testing of cocoa beans to detect possible residues of pesticides. As part of the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, our suppliers provide trainings to the farmers, to promote Good Farming Practices which include techniques and practices for pest and disease management. These practices have the aim to reduce the need for pesticides in cocoa production and control pests using natural methods. Additionally, farmers are educated about the correct application of fertilizers and other inputs. As part of our investments in the responsible sourcing of cocoa, farmers receive solely organic inputs for their cocoa plantations.

Further, pesticide management is part of the Rainforest Alliance certification. As of 2026, we require our sourced cocoa to meet the requirements of the Rainforest Alliance certification. The Rainforest Alliance provides a list of ingredients whose use must be monitored.

We have defined Responsible Sourcing Standards for 12 priority raw and packaging materials that have been identified through a comprehensive risk assessment. We require suppliers to meet recognized Responsible Sourcing Standards or equivalent benchmarks. These include, for example, the Rainforest Alliance certification, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Bonsucro, Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), and the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) Silver level.

Our ambition to source 100% of priority raw and packaging materials according to Responsible Sourcing Standards by 2030 reflects our continued dedication to sourcing with purpose and building transparent and resilient supply chains for the long-term success of our business.

In 2025, we invested CHF 35.1 million in the responsible sourcing of cocoa. This includes Farming Program costs and premiums as well as costs for certification and projects with external partners. Not included is the Living Income Differential.  We aim to invest CHF 300 million into our cocoa Farming Program between 2026 and 2030. Our planned investment in cocoa includes funding of projects and initiatives as well as certification costs. These investments also allow us to provide our suppliers and implementation partners with tools, training, and the financial means to work towards our Farming Program objectives.

Our total greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3) in 2025 were 3.04 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Our footprint was externally audited (limited assurance) by a third party. Emissions from our value chain (scope 3) represent around 95% of our carbon footprint, with cocoa, other raw materials including dairy and sugar, transport, and packaging being the largest contributors. We aim to achieve near- and long-term science-based targets and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2050 as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

See more information in our latest Sustainability Statement.