A recent UN-backed report has revealed that the volume of fully traceable cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana remained unchanged last year, raising concerns about how these top cocoa-producing nations will comply with the upcoming EU law banning the import of commodities linked to deforestation.
Starting next year, the European Union’s new regulation will require importers to prove that their commodities, such as cocoa, were not grown on deforested land. This will include tracing the supply chains down to the specific plots where raw materials were cultivated.
The Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) report found that 83% of directly sourced cocoa in Ghana and 82% in Côte d’Ivoire can currently be traced to its origins—numbers that have remained steady since 2022. However, the non-profit Trase revealed that only about 35% of Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa exports were directly sourced from farmer cooperatives in 2022, with similar or even lower figures for Ghana.
Direct sourcing, which involves buying cocoa directly from farmers rather than through intermediaries, facilitates greater traceability but is not yet widespread. National traceability systems are being piloted in both countries, with expectations of broader supply chain coverage by 2025, when the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) takes effect.
Compliance with the EUDR is crucial for both nations, which export roughly two-thirds of their cocoa to the EU. Millions of rural farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire rely on the cocoa industry for their livelihoods, and failure to meet the regulation could jeopardize their access to the European market.
While the EUDR is lauded as a significant step in combating climate change, it has faced criticism from groups like the European Cocoa Association, which warns that the law could exclude small-scale farmers from the EU market and disrupt supply chains. Amid this, there is growing pressure on Brussels to delay or scale back the legislation.
The CFI was launched at COP 23 as a public-private partnership between Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and major cocoa and chocolate companies to address deforestation, the second-leading cause of climate change after fossil fuel emissions.
