The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) of Cote d’Ivoire has announced it will test a new traceability system in the country, starting in April 2022.
Yves Brahima Kone, head of the CCC, identified three main objectives for the new system;
to control the origins and the entire circuit of beans, fight against deforestation and pay the guaranteed price to farmers.
The final point will be aided by the introduction of a new payment system, which will help to ensure a fair wage for farmers.
The move follows on the heels of COP26, where a pledge was made by more than 100 countries to end deforestation and land degradation by 2030. The European Union, one of its signatories, has proposed a ban on imports of commodities linked to deforestation. The initial list of targeted commodities include Cocoa and Coffee. You can read our special report on the deforestation laws here.
To meet the sustainability goals set by markets and stakeholders, we have to know where the commodities come from.
Market research has shown that consumers are becoming more conscious of brands’ sustainability efforts, choosing products seen to be ethically sourced over alternatives. There has been temptation by some to put a shine on their activities, but savvy consumers are also now wary of greenwashing. Yet, having complete transparency, though desirable, is difficult to achieve without a fully coordinated and managed supply chain. It’s not good enough for a portion of a product to be sustainably sourced, the goal must be for 100% transparency and compliance.
When it comes to cocoa, most systems for tracing the beans are implemented by exporters themselves, and each are proprietary, and therefore incompatible with each other. This makes it difficult to accurately track the route of the cocoa beans from the farm to production. In particular, tracing the journey of the beans from farm to storage has proven to be a struggle, but the new system being tested intends to close the gap.
Now that we have a reliable database on all farmers, the geographic location, dimensions and GPS coordinates of their farms, we can trace the origin of beans from the plantations to close the loop.
What was left unsaid where the ways in which farmers and collectives can bypass systems like this, for example by recording unregistered cocoa to a registered farm. CCC should ensure that these sort of tricks are identified, for example by calculating the estimated production capacity of each farm.
Côte d’Ivoire, who produce around 40% of the world’s cocoa, have been criticised for their purported use of child labour, and destruction of large forested areas, to clear space for further cocoa production.
With the new rules set in place by the EU, the West African nation now faces increased pressure to ensure the ethical and sustainable production of their land’s most valuable crop. It is our hope that the new traceability system can contribute to achieving this goal.
