• Chocolate giants linked to deforestation via indirect cocoa sourcing in Liberia
• Global Witness says opaque supply chains mask origin of uncertified cocoa
• Liberia lost over 250,000 hectares of forest due to cocoa expansion

Global chocolate makers including Nestlé, Mondelēz, Mars, Hershey’s and Unilever are indirectly exposed to cocoa-linked deforestation in Liberia, according to a November 2025 investigation by environmental watchdog Global Witness.

The investigation, titled “Chocolate giants fuel deforestation in West Africa’s last rainforest,” alleges that opaque supply chains allow cocoa grown on recently cleared land to enter the companies’ supply networks through international traders such as ECOM, Touton, OFI (Olam) and Cargill.

None of the five companies sources cocoa directly from Liberia. However, Global Witness says they all rely, to varying degrees, on a “mass balance” certification system commonly used in the West African cocoa industry. Under this system, cocoa certified as sustainably produced can be mixed with uncertified beans from multiple origins, including areas affected by recent deforestation.

As a result, manufacturers can report volumes of “sustainably” certified cocoa without being able to guarantee that the beans used in their products meet that standard. “The mass balance system allows deforestation-free, or ‘clean,’ traceable cocoa to be mixed with untraceable cocoa from multiple origins, making it impossible to rule out Liberian beans entering their products,” Global Witness said.

The investigation also notes that no cocoa farms in Liberia are certified by the Rainforest Alliance, despite all the named traders claiming to use the scheme. Global Witness said this gap underscores the limitations of voluntary sustainability labels.

With the European Union’s deforestation regulation set to take effect in 2026, traders’ flexibility is expected to narrow. This could weigh on growth in Liberia’s cocoa sector, where exports to the EU have risen sharply in recent years.

European Commission data show that the value of EU imports of cocoa and cocoa products from Liberia nearly tripled, rising from 25 million euros in 2020 to 72 million euros in 2024.

Liberia’s main cocoa-producing regions (Bong, Nimba and Lofa counties) lost more than 250,000 hectares of forest between 2021 and 2024, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg, according to Global Witness. The deforestation is closely linked to the expansion of new cocoa plantations, driven by high global bean prices and an influx of planters from Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso seeking new land.

Cocoa-driven deforestation in Liberia is not a recent phenomenon. A September 2025 report by Ivorian NGO IDEF also warned of continued large-scale forest loss linked to cocoa cultivation, driven by the migration of producers from Côte d’Ivoire.

Citing data from the Liberia Land Authority, IDEF said that in Grand Gedeh county alone, nearly 500,000 hectares of primary forest have been cleared or are in the process of being cleared for cocoa since the start of large-scale migration from Côte d’Ivoire in 2020.

Stéphanas Assocle