Beyond the Bean: A Nordic Perspective on Circular Food Systems
Food is essential for our existence. In 2023, the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations set out new, ambitious standards for food that is healthy not only for us but also for our planet. However, creating sustainable food value chains is a complex mission. In this article, written together with Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), we look specifically at one loved by many: cocoa, the base of all chocolate products. What are the missed circular opportunities behind our much-loved chocolatey treats?
The NNR2023 presents data and insights from hundreds of scientists and experts who worked since 2016 to complete the colossal project. A sustainable and circular revolution of food value chains presents unmatched opportunities for real-time innovation that can improve the life quality of millions currently struggling with access to enough food, lack of nutrition-rich options or unhealthy diets—as well as help to regenerate and recover land that is currently suffering from over-cultivation and loss of biodiversity.
Due to the global nature of many food value chains, the true impacts of meals ending on our plates in the North are often felt in less affluent countries early in the production chains. In the Circularity Gap Report 2024, food systems were identified as one of the most high-impact sectors for both low- and middle-income countries to improve their sustainability and circularity. Addressing multiple aspects of food value chains simultaneously can help us to make them more sustainable, from incentivising nutritious choices to cutting food waste, prioritising regenerative agriculture and land management, investing in climate mitigation and empowering farmers to invest in innovations that increase efficiency. Therefore, these same value chains contribute to not only carbon neutrality and net zero goals but also regenerative and fair land use, social justice, and health and wellbeing.
However, creating sustainable food value chains is a complex mission, as they come in all shapes and sizes. In this article, we will look specifically at one loved by many: cocoa, the base of all chocolate products. What are the missed opportunities behind our much-loved chocolatey treats? How can a mixture of policy, innovation and investment create more sustainable and circular food value chains? What does this mean for us in the Nordics?
Nordics Need to Tackle Food Waste on the Production Side
The Nordic region, while comparatively small in population (Nordic Countries make up only 0.33% of the total global population as of 2024), is ambitious and forward-thinking in its commitment to the circular economy. For example, Finland was the first country in the world to adopt a national circular economy roadmap to reduce its material footprint. Also, the Nordic region makes up the 12th-largest economy in the world—therefore, its potential for global impact is significant. Today, however, the Nordic region’s economy is only 6% circular.
At the 2021 Nordic Council of Ministers’ annual session, the declaration Towards Sustainable Food Systems was adopted. It committed to collective efforts by Nordic countries to reduce food loss and waste with ministers agreeing that:
‘Public-private partnerships, voluntary agreements negotiated between governments and food chain actors, monitoring, sharing of innovations and best practices, and guidance of all actors in the food chain are needed for behavioural changes. A circular economy with upcycling of residues, nutrients, and waste is part of the solution.’
The agreement came in the wake of the Food Loss and Waste Index Report (UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) 2021) in support of SDG target 12.3 which aims ‘to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 2030’.
The Nordic ambition is clear and yet there is further opportunity to utilise the full potential of circularity to help reduce food loss and waste. Many efforts are being made to tackle food waste on the consumer side, but not enough attention is being paid to the production side. A significant volume of organic material is lost during production, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, and a lack of potential increase in farmer income. This loss not only includes the food loss the organisations are trying hard to prevent, but also the often overlooked unavoidable food loss, by-products, and waste streams generated as a result of the production of food. This situation must be improved. The Nordics can make a difference.
Let’s take a look at the opportunity from the perspective of one of our most enjoyed cash crops, chocolate.
Beyond the Bean: Circular Innovation for Cocoa
Cocoa is not a commodity that is imported at scale into Nordic countries. However, there may be opportunities to stimulate investment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) working to reduce food loss and waste in producer countries and at the start-up level throughout the Nordic region. Studies have shown that there is a growing market throughout Scandinavia for high-quality, sustainable cocoa products. Organic products are gaining popularity, and this could be a good indicator of rising demand for products such as those produced by A Dutch company called Kumasi Drinks. Kumasi has worked with cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to turn cocoa pulp—a byproduct of cocoa harvesting that is commonly wasted—to produce a soft drink for the European market. This innovation reduces food waste and provides 30% extra income per kilogram of cocoa for farmers.
Beyond the bean (the seeds of the cacao fruit that are harvested to make chocolate), the whole cacao fruit can be used. 75% of this fruit is commonly discarded and left to degrade on the ground. The ‘waste’ is made up of four byproducts: pod husk, pulp, ash, and bean shells. Byproducts such as these can be turned into useful materials such as biomass for electricity, animal feed, fertilizers, and soap—providing many cross-sectoral opportunities.
To minimise food loss and waste, we must work at the production level as well to stimulate the economic viability of reducing waste as built-in to the production. Harvesting must be efficient and byproducts such as these must be saved and used. This can also bring much-needed improvements to farmer livelihoods by converting ‘redundant’ material into potential commodities.
Nordic countries can play a role by working with policymakers and the local, regional, and government levels, investing in SMEs and creating partnerships with smallholder farmers.
Right now there are three main barriers standing in the way:
Collection and transportation: given that 90% of cocoa is produced on small-holder farms where infrastructure is poor, it is difficult and expensive to transport waste to processing facilities. This drives up the cost of removing the waste, a cost that is not balanced in benefits for the farmer.
Technology access: the cost of equipment and the technology required to process the waste is unaffordable and inaccessible. For example, processing the cacao pod husks into animal feed or compost requires additional machinery and processes an investment that is currently inaccessible to farmers as the majority live below the poverty line.
Invisible market: we know that the technical feasibility of these by-products is there. However, exploration of business cases remains low as there is unclear/unknown market demand for the by-products. Consequently, financing and investment are difficult to secure.
Technology and innovation alone are not enough
The first step is raising awareness. There are many opportunities to scale and work with producer countries to minimise food loss and waste and bring benefits to people, nature, and the climate. However, these opportunities are not widely known. There is also a dominant assumption that technology and innovation are all that are needed to make fundamental changes to global production systems. However, we know that much more needs to be done to make structural changes and to initiate them simultaneously. Innovation alone cannot solve the problem, neither can technology. There must be more ambition to join up the required policy changes, investment needs, and innovation solutions and this requires awareness of the challenges and opportunities as well as a blend of public-private partnerships.
Nordic initiatives can help stimulate support for public-private partnerships to increase the adoption of circular practices at scale in producer countries. For example, a project supported by the Ikea Foundation, Circular Food Systems for Rwanda, is a partnership initiative to help drive forward a circular food system in Rwanda by providing technical assistance to SMEs working in the agri-food sector. Through technical assistance provision, SMEs are gaining access to solutions and policy influences to help them scale their circular efforts and make them more sustainable in the long term.
While cocoa is a value chain ripe for interventions such as these, the possibilities are similarly endless in other value chains. A great example of a local food value chain already utilising these techniques is the 100% Fish, an Icelandic project utilising all of the fish for products with zero waste at the end of the process. The Nordics have an opportunity to engage with this issue and start bringing about change where it is most needed.
Set your ambition for a circular food revolution. Share with us any SMEs you know are working on circularising the food we eat!
