13 May 2026
The 2026 Chocolate Scorecard has just been released, and Bennetto has placed in the top tier (Green band) of the global chocolate industry.
And, our Swiss manufacturer, with whom we have worked closely for the past 9 years, was ranked the number one ethical chocolate manufacturer in the world.
What the Chocolate Scorecard is
The Chocolate Scorecard is the chocolate industry's independent annual sustainability assessment. It is coordinated by Be Slavery Free, working with more than 40 NGO, academic and civil society partners, including the University of Wollongong and The Open University. Each year, it scores chocolate companies, manufacturers, and traders across seven categories: traceability and transparency, living income, child and forced labour, deforestation, agroforestry and climate, pesticides, and gender. Results are presented as a traffic light system. Green for industry leaders, yellow and orange for companies on the journey, red for companies a long way off, and grey for companies that refuse to be assessed at all. And there are Bad Egg awards, for companies declining to participate.
The bar was raised in 2026
This year's edition was the toughest yet. The Scorecard stopped accepting "we don't know" as an answer. A policy on a website was no longer enough to score well. Companies had to show what they had measured, paid, and changed on the farms they buy from. Living Income scoring was tightened. Gender was added as a fully scored category for the first time.
Scoring in the top tier under these tougher new terms means a great deal to us, and it was our first time taking part.
Our results
Bennetto scored 79% overall, placing us solidly in the Green band.
By category:
The 100% on pesticides reflects our long-standing commitment to certified organic cocoa.
The 88% on living income, now the lowest-scoring theme in the Scorecard across the industry, reflects the work our cooperative partners and HALBA have done to measure, pay, and document fair farmgate prices.
The categories where we still have room to grow, particularly Gender and Agroforestry and Climate, are on our roadmap for the next 12 months, and we will be focusing on this.
The company we keep
Independent coverage of the 2026 Scorecard by anti-slavery organisation ‘Unseen UK,’ named Bennetto among the industry leaders, alongside Tony's Chocolonely, Ritter Sport, Mars Wrigley, The Hershey Company, Coop, Ahold Delhaize, Original Beans, Chocolate Makers, and Malmö. For a small New Zealand brand to be listed in that company says everything about the strength of our supply chain and the integrity of our partners.
What's next
Holding a top-tier score is not the finish line. The areas where we have room to grow are the
areas we are now actively working on:
1. Deepening our gender work with the farmer cooperatives we source from in Ecuador,
Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Madagascar.
2. Expanding the agroforestry and ecosystem story across our supply chain.
3. Completing our B Corp recertification this year.
The 2027 Scorecard will be tougher again. That is exactly how it should be.
Thank you.
To our customers, retail partners, distributors, and supporters. Every time you choose a certified organic, Fairtrade, B Corp chocolate bar, you make the case for an industry that pays farmers properly, protects forests, and refuses to look the other way.
Lucy Bennetto
