Barry Callebaut has taken yet another step in helping to create a sustainable cocoa industry.

The chocolate manufacturer has already partnered with groups like IDH to expand their efforts, but has recently announced a strategic partnership with Tony's Chocolonely to produce chocolate from fully traceable cocoa.

Barry Callebaut and Tony's Chocolonely, an Amsterdam-based chocolate company committed to bringing an end to child labor abuse in the chocolate industry, have cooperated since 2005, when Barry Callebaut began to produce Fairtrade cocoa liquor for Tony's Chocolonely. In 2013, Barry Callebaut began to produce chocolate for Tony's Chocolonely that used traceable, sustainable cocoa liquor sourced from Tony's Chocolonely's partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Under the new partnership agreement, the cocoa butter used in that chocolate will also become fully traceable and sourced from Tony's Chocolonely's partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire.

 “We have a long-standing commitment to sustainable cocoa, working directly with cocoa-growing communities on-the-ground," says Antoine de Saint-Affrique, ceo of Barry Callebaut. "Having made sustainable cocoa one of the four pillars of our strategy, we champion the development of a fully sustainable chocolate value chain. This partnership with Tony’s Chocolonely is a milestone in our efforts to provide fully sustainable products to our customers.”

Barry Callebaut will install a dedicated cocoa butter tank in its factory in Wieze, Belgium to ensure that all cocoa products in Tony's Chocolonely's chocolate will be traceable.

 “It is our mission to make 100 percent slave-free chocolate the norm in the industry," says Eva Gouwens, first lady of chocolate of Tony’s Chocolonely.

The company's sourcing model is based on five principles: It sources its cocoa beans directly from partner cooperatives and follows the beans along the supply chain; it pays a higher price; it enters into long-term contracts with the farmers; and it works to strengthen organizations and improve quality and productivity with those farmers.

"We are proud to say that all cocoa beans in Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate will become fully traceable and come from partner cooperatives we have long-term relationships with," Gouwens adds. "It is possible. So we invite the rest of the industry to join us in making chocolate 100 percent slave free."