Are the artisans of chocolate ready for a sustainable certified cocoa? Willingness to pay and acceptability exploration

The chocolate supply chain, characterized by a polarization between the area of production of raw material (cocoa) and consumption of the refined product (chocolate), requires a special focus on sustainability issues. To concretely improve the welfare and livelihood of cocoa producers they should be oriented toward supply chain certifications that ensure sustainable production in terms of human rights, environmental protection and living income. The aim of this study aims to investigate the potential interest by Italian transformers, the chocolate producers, in buying sustainable cocoa from a certified supply chain. The considered sample consisted of 30 companies, divided into micro, small and medium-sized. Interviews were carried out to understand some cocoa characteristics such as origin, variety, product format, raw material, price, type of chocolate and certifications. The willingness to pay of chocolate producers for cocoa with supply chain certification were explored. The main results showed significant differences according to the size of the enterprise when it chooses the origin of cocoa and evaluates its product and supply chain certifications. The chi-squared tests revealed in a statistically significant way that micro-enterprises primarily purchase cocoa from Ecuador, while medium-sized enterprises mainly from Peru and Venezuela. Characteristics like interest in certifications were found to be different for the three types of enterprises: microenterprises due to their size do not give special importance to certifications, while small and medium-sized enterprises show more interest and awareness for fair trade and organic. The interest of medium-sized enterprises is focused on satisfying a wider consumer segment with many products, while small and micro ones are targeted on a high value product. Although the focus on sustainability is present in all the three types of enterprises, the willingness to pay a “premium price” changes depending on size.