Effective immediately, Retzlaff, until now president of Global Cocoa, will assume the newly created role of executive chairman of FFI, reporting to Peter Feld, CEO of Barry Callebaut.
The Group will create the FFI investment company, which will initially be 100% owned by Barry Callebaut, and will expand its technological and IT capabilities.
Barry Callebaut said FFI intends to be a catalyst for others to invest in agriculture and create partnerships with farmers to modernize sustainable large-scale cocoa farming.
Under Retzlaff’s leadership, Barry Callebaut signed the first in a series of agreements with a respected high-tech agricultural company in Bahia, Brazil, to first expand 5,000 hectares of land.
The usual ambition is to test and scale up practices to create a scalable and cost-effective high-tech style for sustainable cocoa farming. The original assets of Barry Callebaut’s 640-hectare Farm of the Future in Cerecitas, Ecuador, will also be part of the FFI.
At the same time, the Group continues to contribute to the reform of the existing cocoa farming style in all its countries of origin, while integrating FFI classes into its processing approach.
“To fully leverage the knowledge we have gained over the past decade, we now aim to be a catalyst and create the future of sustainable, high-tech cocoa farming for the industry.
“Steven Retzlaff is the ideal user to take on this new challenge. He is identified as a leader and expert in the industry. Over the more than 20 years, he has fundamentally turned Barry Callebaut’s global cocoa business into the good fortune story we know today. He was instrumental in defining the long-term vision of cocoa sustainability for smallholder farmers. That’s why we’re very excited that Steven is taking on this new challenge on how cocoa will be grown in the future.
Alain Freymond will soon succeed Retzlaff as President of Global Cocoa, under the leadership of Peter Feld.
Retzlaff said: “I am very excited to take on this new challenge. I am convinced that, in combination with FFI, we will not only bring cocoa farming to the commercial level, but also contribute to making sustainable cocoa the norm.
“We will be able to transfer what we have learned and FFI’s experience to our partners in all our home countries to continue with them on their journey towards more productive and sustainable cocoa farming. Something that has been close to my center for the past few decades. and will continue to be so in the future. “