IN Brief:
- Ownership and governance of Harmony have transferred from Mondelēz International to the ProTerra Foundation.
- The scheme covers about 57,000 hectares and connects more than 1,200 farmers across Europe.
- Independent governance opens the certification framework to other growers, millers, manufacturers, and brands.
Mondelēz International has transferred ownership and governance of its Harmony wheat programme to the ProTerra Foundation, converting the long-running sourcing initiative into an independent certification scheme open to eligible participants across the European wheat value chain.
Harmony began in France in 2008 and has expanded across European wheat production over almost two decades. The scheme now connects more than 1,200 farmers and covers around 57,000 hectares, with requirements addressing soil health, biodiversity, crop diversification, input management, traceability, and agricultural resilience.
ProTerra Foundation will own and govern the scheme, while certification is carried out through independent audits across the chain from farm to finished product. Mondelēz will remain involved as a user and member and plans to continue supporting innovation, pilot projects, and farmer engagement without retaining ownership of the standard.
Independent governance changes the pool of companies able to use Harmony. The programme was developed around Mondelēz’s own wheat requirements, whereas the new structure allows other food manufacturers, processors, cooperatives, millers, and brands to participate under the same certification framework.
The transfer also arrives as European requirements around environmental claims and sustainability labels become stricter. The EU’s consumer rules increasingly favour sustainability labels supported by certification schemes or public authorities, increasing the importance of independent governance, transparent criteria, and credible verification.
Wheat is a strategic raw material for Mondelēz because of the scale of its European biscuit business. The company has previously reported that the wheat volume required for European biscuit production was grown under the Harmony charter, while later versions of the programme introduced regenerative agriculture measures covering soil condition, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and farm resilience.
Those agricultural requirements ultimately have to coexist with manufacturing specifications. Biscuit plants need flour with predictable characteristics, while millers need wheat that can be segregated, traced, blended, and documented without undermining production continuity. Certification adds assurance but also creates audit, data, and chain of custody requirements across farms, storage, milling, and food production.
Harmony has developed considerably from its early emphasis on biodiversity measures. A strengthened regenerative agriculture charter expanded the programme into soil resilience, climate mitigation, crop management, and broader agronomic practices.
The scheme now operates across France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Germany, and Slovakia. ProTerra is therefore taking responsibility for an established programme with farms and supply chains already operating under its requirements rather than launching a new standard without an existing production base.
Opening the scheme more widely will test whether the certification rules can remain consistent across markets with different farm structures, climates, crop rotations, milling systems, and commercial relationships. Audit quality and comparability become more important as participation grows beyond a single manufacturer’s sourcing programme.
Broader adoption could increase the available volume of independently certified wheat and reduce the extent to which growers and intermediaries have to work through individual buyer-specific programmes. Millers supplying several manufacturers could also gain from a common scheme if customers recognise the same standard rather than requiring parallel sustainability systems.
Participation will still depend on cost and practicality. Farmers, traders, millers, and food manufacturers will have to assess audit requirements, record keeping, agronomic commitments, traceability, and compatibility with existing customer programmes before adopting Harmony.
ProTerra already operates certification and verification programmes for agricultural commodities. Under the Harmony structure, governance, implementation, and conformity assessment are separated, with approved certification bodies responsible for audits and certification decisions.
That separation also gives Mondelēz a different relationship with the programme it created. It remains a major user with substantial commercial interest in the outcome, but another organisation now controls the standard and its certification framework.
The transfer creates an opportunity for Harmony to develop from a manufacturer-specific sourcing system into a wider European wheat standard, but the scale of that change will depend on participation beyond Mondelēz’s established supplier base.
The next evidence will come from new users. Additional growers, millers, food manufacturers, or brands joining under ProTerra governance would show that the scheme can function as a shared certification platform rather than remaining primarily a legacy sourcing programme for its original owner.
