Cocoa, from the smallholding to the filed statement
Most cocoa comes from smallholders farming a few hectares, often under shade trees, through cooperatives and exporters. Whether you grind beans or import chocolate, every plot behind it needs its geolocation and its evidence.
What is in scope
What is covered
Cocoa beans, paste, butter and powder, and chocolate and other food containing cocoa.
Who files
The company that first places the goods on the EU market files the due diligence statement: a grinder or trader importing beans, or an importer of cocoa products and chocolate made outside the EU, in Türkiye, the United Kingdom or Switzerland as much as in the countries that grow it. The companies after it in the chain keep records of their suppliers and customers.
From when
From 30 December 2026, or from 30 June 2027 for companies that were micro or small on 31 December 2024.
The plots you will get
Plots of a few hectares, held by smallholders who sell through cooperatives and exporters, who are usually the suppliers who can gather them.
Ask them for their farmers' plots from the app. They get an email in their language, French, English, Spanish or Portuguese among them, with reminders, and send the plots from their own list, which serves every buyer who asks.
A plot up to 4 hectares may be given as a point, but an outline gives a fairer result: a point is read as a circle, which can take in a neighbour's clearing, or miss one on the plot itself.
Where it comes from
Most cocoa the EU imports comes from West Africa: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon among them, with Ecuador and other Latin American growers beside them. Each country's risk level changes what your due diligence must cover.
- Côte d’Ivoirestandard risk
- Ghanalow risk
- Nigeriastandard risk
- Cameroonstandard risk
- Ecuadorstandard risk
Importing cocoa?
Tell us what you import and from where, and we will set up your account.
Other commodities
-
Rubber Plantations, replanting, and what left the scope in 2026. -
Soy Large farms, Brazilian CAR properties, and land that greens again within a season. -
Coffee Green and roasted, smallholders' points, and shade-grown coffee. -
Palm oil Estates, smallholders, and replanting. -
Cattle Every establishment where the animals were kept.