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Major companies trading cocoa from tropical countries or companies processing cocoa and manufacturing chocolate have become increasingly concerned about a sustainable and secure access to cocoa beans. Combinations of old cocoa trees, aging farmers, declining soil fertility, and the spread of plant diseases, pose real threats to the viability of cocoa trade and the chocolate industry. Leading export and chocolate manufacturing companies in the sector explore different strategies to address these problems, for example introducing contracts with farmers’ groups to arrange the transfer of inputs and know-how, building linkages with public agencies in producing countries to disseminate new trees, or implementing sustainability standards in alliance with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide incentives for increasing productivity and quality. The implementation of global sustainability standards, for example with Utz Certified or Rainforest Alliance, is accompanied by certification and auditing procedures and by various modes of training and organizing an increasing percentage of cocoa farmers. In 2014, a dozen of major cocoa and chocolate companies committed to a ‘one industry’programme CocoaAction, facilitated by World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), and aligned with the origin governments’ goals (Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana) and programmes managed by their national institutions. This signals a wider interest in public–private partnerships that goes beyond the collaboration between lead firms and NGOs in certification schemes. Hence, government bodies and public policy are also becoming part of arrangements …