A percentage in a responsible-sourcing report is rarely enough to establish which conditions apply to a particular shipment. On 17 September 2026, Mars reported that annual volumes sourced through its responsible cocoa program equalled 98% of the company's 2025 cocoa use. This is a company-reported program sourcing figure; its scope should be checked alongside the headline number. Mars announcement
Annual sourcing and product traceability answer different questions
Mars says the calculation excludes cocoa from licensed manufacturers and volumes related to businesses acquired during the reporting year and the preceding two calendar years. For cocoa sourced through a mass-balance model, third-party certification or audits determine deforestation-free and ecosystem-conversion status. These qualifications limit what the percentage represents: an annual volume equivalence does not by itself identify the physical origin of the cocoa in each finished product. Mars report notes 1–3
The company also says that all cocoa produced and purchased in 2025 from participating farmers in West Africa was covered by a child-labour monitoring and remediation system. This describes the coverage of the monitoring arrangement; it does not establish that child labour is absent from the global supply chain. Mars monitoring coverage
Procurement teams can request a data note
The following is a practical suggestion for organizing supplier information, not a form required by Mars. When a supplier reports an environmental or human-rights performance percentage, request enough context to decide whether it can support a customer response or your own disclosure.
| Information to retain | Question it helps answer |
|---|---|
| Reporting year, sites and materials | Does the scope cover the purchased item and supply source? |
| Numerator, denominator and exclusions | Is the rate based on volume, value, supplier count or assessed sites? |
| Traceability or chain-of-custody model | Does the evidence support an annual sourcing claim or a specific batch origin claim? |
| Evidence validity and audit scope | Is the certificate or record current and applicable to this supplier and product? |
| Findings and remediation status | Who addresses an issue, by when, and how is closure verified? |
If information is incomplete, preserve the supplier's stated limitations and assign an owner to follow up on missing evidence. External statements should stay within the scope of available evidence; an annual supplier-wide result should not be presented as a guarantee about every product your company sells.
Source checked: 26 September 2026. Figures are based on Mars's own report; this page does not independently audit its supply chain.