Cemoi chocolatier unveils cocoa supply digitisation project ahead of EUDR regulations
pic: Cemoi
French-based premium chocolate group Cemoi has confirmed that its cocoa sourcing operations are fully on course to meet requirements for the upcoming EUDR deforestation regulations due at the end of this year, reports Neill Barston.
As the company explained, it has placed a high priority on sustainable sourcing and noted that it first began satellite mapping of the farms with which it works in West Africa as a core strategy of its production methods.
According to the business, it’s now set to take this a step further to ensure digital traceability of its entire supply chain, building upon its existing commitments which saw traceability of its cocoa masses secured from cooperative growers since 2022. This includes a significant partnership with the Scandinavian-located Farmforce sustainability organisation, which was among speakers at the 2023 edition of our World Confectionery Conference.
Moreover, as Cemoi asserted, this offers a key approach in the sector, where supply passes often through intermediaries, leading to a partial or total loss of traceability of beans. Furthermore, as part of its Cocoa Transparency programme, the business also collected data allowing it to take stock of its cocoa actions.
As the company observed, the task is an “exceptionally large-scale project” consisting of moves to authenticate the plots of its 70,000 partner producers from Ivory Coast, cultivating 210,000 ha of land.
The company has established a strong reputation on a global level, making its entry into the chocolate world in 1919, and steadily expanding exports around the world. The company produces ranges under three banners – products targeting chocolate professionals, its consumer brand, as well as its Maison Cemoi, a unique series of items reflecting some 200 years of chocolate making within France.
pic: Cemoi
As for its latest sustainability venture, the company explained that its local teams have already started meticulous work in the field with the mobile tool developed by FarmForce, which specialises in solutions SaaS software for the first mile of supply chain.
According to Cemoi, by next year, precise locations of cocoa sourcing will be available at ‘the click of a button’ which can definitively show that crops were not grown in deforested land, and did not cause forest degradation. Linked to this, a total of 75 cooperatives are already loaded on FarmForce’s systems, and 27 cooperatives on site are already trained in the use of the tool and
have implemented it with cocoa farmers.
Advanced digital traceability
As the confectionery group added, this initiative will enable a 100% digital monitoring system will be able to accurately list producers of cocoa, present in remote areas and whose identity is sometimes difficult to authenticate, in lack of usual registration documents such as identity cards or certificates of birth.
Thanks to the granting of unique identifiers and the provision of mobile phones to cooperative staff, they record GPS data to map precisely their plots. Data can be collected and synchronized
subsequently, via internet network thus ensuring flawless compliance, adapted to the quality of network coverage and its variations.
Furthermore, beyond the digitisation of the identity of cocoa farmers and contact details of their plots, CÉMOI has expanded its partnership with Farmforce to digitally collect all data associated with sustainable development.
This data will include, for example, the surface area of land covered in agroforestry, the number of children supported towards education or the number of women having
benefited from an empowerment process as part of the “Transparency Cocoa” from the chocolatier.
Indeed, beyond a guarantee of traceability and product quality, the company concluded that this programme has the particularity of supporting producers directly on the ground towards more sustainable agricultural models and implements action plans and targeted projects deployed in partnership with local cooperatives and NGOs to ensure cocoa participating in respect for humans and the environment. Local populations of the regions of cocoa cultivation are considered an integral part of its strategy
