Cocoa farmers, dairy farmers, vanilla pickers: These are just some of the partners who help the Maîtres Chocolatiers of LINDT to make outstanding chocolate. Everyone who is involved in the success of LINDT should be treated fairly. That is why we comply with high standards of ethics and sustainability in the procurement of our raw materials and in their processing into high-quality chocolate.

Sustainable and socially responsible activity is an important prerequisite for the long-term success of a company. We are convinced of that at Lindt & Sprüngli. That is why we are committed in all our processes in the production of LINDT chocolate to maximum quality and sustainability - from the procurement of the best raw materials to production and the consumption of the melt-in-the-mouth chocolates.

Despite intensive and careful work, many cocoa farmers live in impoverished circumstances. The non-transparent trade channels with many interim dealers, small farming areas, insufficient farming practices, the lack of access to inputs, the ageing of the existing trees coupled with the challenging care that they require all contribute to the farmers' income often being very low.

Many cocoa farmers are therefore turning their backs on farming entirely. Kwame Osei, 65 years old, is one of more than 52,000 Ghanaian small-scale farmers who supply cocoa for LINDT chocolate and he dreams of his youngest daughter one day taking over his cocoa plantation in Ghana.

Lindt & Sprüngli has close ties with Ghana. A major percentage of the cocoa that is used to make LINDT chocolate comes from the country in West Africa. Local farmers have grown the sought-after fruit for generations. With its Farming Program, Lindt & Sprüngli is committed to improving the challenging living and working conditions of the farmers in Ghana.

For years, Lindt & Sprüngli has been dealing with the issue of how the best cocoa can be preserved and how the farmers' quality of life can be improved. A milestone was reached in 2008: Lindt & Sprüngli launched a pioneering project that marked the starting point for the present Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program.

In many regions of Africa, as it is the case in Ghana, clean, safe drinking water is not something to be taken for granted. In order to increase the cocoa farmers' quality of life, the manufacturer of LINDT chocolate is active in helping to improve the supply of clean drinking water.

Sadia Alimaiu lives in Sefwi Boako, a small village in the west of Ghana. She is one of the farmers who supply the finest cocoa beans to Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate factory for the production of LINDT chocolate.

Today, fourteen-year-old Osman Mamutu enjoys school much more than he used to. And 29-year-old cocoa farmer Bonsu Osai was able to increase his cocoa harvest fourfold last year.

The schoolboy Osman Mamutu used to envy the children in his region who went to a private school: They had access to computers and learned how to use modern information and communication technologies. The parents of Osman Mamutu, cocoa farmers, could not afford to send their son to private school.

During the rainy season in 2008 a particularly violent tropical storm partially destroyed the primary school of the Ghanaian town of Kyekyewere. In order to be able to offer a substitute form of schooling in spite of this, the local authorities came up with a makeshift solution: They set up an operation in a nearby church so that the children could continue to have lessons, albeit at an unusual place and at staggered times.

Since this could never have been a permanent solution, Lindt & Sprüngli immediately actively supported the reconstruction of a more efficient school by investing in modernising the structure, building school's connection to the electricity grid and refurbishing with new modern tools.

The only vegetable fat used in the production of all LINDT chocolates is pure cocoa butter. Some fillings of LINDT chocolates contain various vegetable fats, including palm oil. In the production process, Lindt & Sprüngli opts for palm oil from sustainable production in order to minimize harmful effects of palm oil production on the environment and humans.

Palm oil has outstanding melting characteristics, is neutral in taste and has a firm consistency at room temperature, its usage is very widespread today. It is particularly suited to producing creamy fillings and thus offering melt-in-the-mouth indulgence.