When The Hershey Company's 2025 Responsible Business Report named Sourcemap among the partners it trusts to keep deforestation out of its cocoa supply chain, it was the latest chapter in a partnership that began nearly a decade ago.

2016: Putting the supply chain on the map

In 2016, Hershey became the first major confectionery brand to open its supply chain to the public through Sourcemap. The interactive experience let consumers trace the origins of iconic products like Reese's and Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds, watch the peanut and almond farmers behind them, and learn about the cooperatives Hershey supported in Côte d'Ivoire. At a moment when "transparency" rarely meant more than a longer ingredient label, Hershey and Sourcemap were already showing the world where chocolate actually comes from.

From a map to an operating system

Over the years that followed, the relationship deepened from telling a story to running the infrastructure beneath it — moving from audits to continuous, multi-tier data collection across Hershey's cocoa supply chain. Sourcemap became the system of record for where Hershey's cocoa originates and the conditions under which it's grown, capturing the chain down to the farm.

2025: anchoring the fight against deforestation

Hershey's 2025 report names Sourcemap alongside the Earthworm Foundation and the World Cocoa Foundation as the partners it relies on to monitor and assess deforestation- and conversion-free cocoa. Powered by geospatial monitoring through Sourcemap, Hershey has polygon-mapped 100% of the farmers producing its cocoa volume in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, building the farm-level baseline needed to measure tree-cover loss, flag encroachment into protected forests, and hold the line on deforestation against a 2018 cut-off.

Looking to the Future

From a pilot that let shoppers see a cocoa farm, to the data backbone behind a global chocolate maker's deforestation commitments — Hershey is evolving its pioneering approach to responsible cocoa sourcing and Sourcemap is providing key infrastructure every step of the way.