Ivory Coast can no longer export untraced cocoa to EU starting 2025

ABIDJAN -- Ivory Coast will no longer be able to export untraced cocoa to the European Union (EU) starting from 2025, according to Fadiga Mamadou Deye, the delegate of the Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC) for the Ivorian region of Haut-Sassandra.

During a workshop in Gagnoa, a town in southern Ivory Coast, he stressed Tuesday that from January 2025, Ivory Coast will only be able to export cocoa to the EU if its origin is known. The main objective of this measure is to promote the sustainability of the coffee-cocoa sector.

Traceability involves the geolocation of production plots and aims to set up a cocoa marketing mechanism making it possible to trace its journey from the plantations to the ports of shipment.

In October 2021, a project entitled "Protection and action against hazardous child labor" was launched by the EU and Save the Children, a non-governmental organization, in Daloa, a city in western Ivory Coast, with the aim of improving the plights faced by children, their families and their communities to prevent their involvement in dangerous work linked to cocoa exploitation.

Beyond protecting producers, this project seeks to eliminate child labor, encourage their schooling and protect forests in targeted areas.

The cooperative partners of the project were informed in advance of the implementation of this traceability component, in collaboration with the Ivorian government and the CCC, said Fadiga who specified that despite this deadline, an extension of two years could be considered for Ivory Coast.