Exclusive: Caobisco meeting raises key EU-Mercosur and deforestation regulation progress

Major prospects for the EU-Mercosur trade deal, as well as hopes for resolving landmark EUDR deforestation legislation formed key elements of Caobisco’s annual gathering in Brussels, reports Neill Barston.

The key European confectionery, chocolate and biscuits trade association, which has played an integral role in our World Confectionery Conference, invited its members from across the region to gain a notable update on its backing for core legislation impacting global trade.

Notably, the event featured Tobias Bachmüller, managing shareholder of Germany’s Katjes confectionery group, who gave his first major public engagement as Caobisco’s new president.

He was joined by Antonella Rosetti, member of Cabinet for the Commission for Agriculture and Food, as well as Elias Santos, Minister-Counsellor, Economic and Trade Affairs  representative from Brazil to the EU, exploring progress made on core deals. This included the long-awaited EU-Mercosur deal, which appears close to being finally signed between Europe and South American nations after 25 years of prolonged negotiations. 

As the panellists noted, the deal could herald potential for the confectionery and snacks sectors, though they collectively acknowledged that not every sphere of industry was suited to the agreement.

Significantly, last month Caobisco had joined cross-sector support for the EU-Mercosur deal to be resolved swiftly, noting that the businesses represented by the respective industries represented an estimated value of €153 billion trade, and €380 billion in mutual investments between Europe and the Mercosur nations, which are centred on Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Speaking at the event, Tobias Bachmüller, struck an upbeat tone for proceedings, noting that he was ‘optimistic’ that major regulatory challenges including EUDR, and trade deals such as Mercosur can be resolved positively in spite of challenges in implementing these agreements.

As he noted, Caobisco has continued to work hard in representing the interests of the confectionery industry as a whole within the region, observing that some 98% of its members are SME enterprises. 

“Caobisco is now representing 15,000 companies and around 310,000 people, very often they’re in small shops, and those businesses are making a combined turnover of €59 billion, with €17bn in exports, so we have every reason to fight for trade agreements.

“My personal opinion is that maybe Donald Trump did us a favour, as it woke everyone up to the fact that it is good to have free trade relations with countries like Brazil, Japan, Canada and we will also soon have with India, so this is a great time,” adding that it was also a great personal pleasure to be leading Caobisco amid such a notable moment in trading relations. 

Elias Santos commented: “I think many of the organisations here are supportive of the Mercosur agreement, and this is very important for us in order for the agreement to be approved and put in force after so much effort into the negotiations.

“Brazil wants to increase its business and trade with the EU in terms of agriculture and food products that are produced within the European Union, and in our country, chocolate is important, but Brazil’s chocolate is mostly for its own internal market, so we hope the agreement will enable us to export to the EU market more. 

“Our country is also a producer of sugar, cocoa and coffee, which are also important. We don’t export a lot of cocoa, but we’re a traditional producer, so this is a commodity that is important to some of our regions and states, and we can work together with the EU through WTO rules, and bilaterally agreed rule that we can work on together that are respected, and remain stable over time,” he explained of his country’s position on exports. He believed that establishing secure and stable trade was a fundamental element of gaining the final agreement for Mercosur.

He noted that having political consensus for such agreements, and that the purpose of such agreements was to create rather than restrict trade, which needed to be expressed as positives for all countries involved. 

Significantly, he noted that environmental and health concerns, as well as product quality should also be given especially strong consideration regarding any such major trading arrangements, which trading rules should sufficiently address.

For her part, Antonella Rosetti described the EU deal with the Mercosur countries as a ‘great opportunity’ and that the European Commission’s hope was that it could be implemented as soon as possible.

She acknowledged that it did not provide benefits to all sectors, but the access for the industry to 290 million consumers for product areas such as confectionery, wine as well as dairy products were notably valuable. Significantly, she explained that safeguards were being developed for industries that were potentially more challenging to find common ground over.

Maintaining sustainability
Speaking on the commission’s mission as regards sustainability, Rosetti explained that its main objective is to increase competitiveness for businesses within the EU in its general activities within Europe.

“There’s still a demand for sustainability from consumers that we have to acknowledge as a policy maker, but I think it is clear now that we won’t abandon our ideological approach on sustainability, but we will now not just be focused on environmental sustainability, which is still important and at the top of our agenda as a commission. But we have to combine that with economic sustainability and social sustainability, as we cannot lose jobs. We have to think about the complexity of the world.

“Caobisco’s president mentioned the trade agenda – the world is more complicated now – we need more predictability, and we need new markets, including Mercosur, which we are now approaching,” adding that there had been positive internal commission developments, including new EU budgets for 2026 that had agreed €100 million for the promotion of European products, with additional funding for multi-layered projects that would help bolster the reputation of EU-products in export markets.

“This isn’t about ‘food nationalism’ but we have to be proud of our products,” she said of its campaign to promote European food ranges, which she believed was heading in a positive direction.

EUDR and wider due diligence introduction`
For his part, Tobias Bachmüller addressed the question of whether there was an end in sight for key regulations including EUDR and its related due diligence frameworks.

Addressing the audience, he explained that in his view, it was correct that larger companies commit to handling the bulk of responsibility in handling the core aspects of such complex legislation.

He said: “I believe we are on the right track now, the signals for this are clear, in that there is a need for sustainability and competitiveness, so a balanced approach is needed. We need to stand with the goals of sustainability, but it has to be workable. 

“We have 15,000 members, most are smaller companies, so they cannot all just deal with these points, but we now have a solution in that goes in the direction of the very big companies who are the first buyers in relation to this, they can afford these policies, and they have the people and expertise for this, so this is fair, as they are operating in more countries.” 

In addition, in relation to EUDR,  Antonella Rosetti said that while it was not under her department, she noted it remained a notably testing area of policy making.

She added that the commission was aware that ‘a number of operators had not been happy,’ but stressed that the organisation was working towards finding a solution for the situation.

Notably, as Confectionery Production has reported this week, EUDR policy took a major turn this week, as the EU Council has now voted to position itself seeking an additional year’s delay on top of the year’s roll-back that is due to see the frameworks enter force at the end of next month. 

The council will now put this to the European Parliament to gain agreement to effectively put that added delay into statutory law, meaning EUDR would not enter into force until the end of 2026, if agreement is gained on that.

Ensuring cocoa’s survival
Notably, following the core panel discussion, attendees at the event had chance to explore an exhibition of initiatives exploring cocoa sustainability measures for the sector.

Among them was Swiss-DeCode, which has since setting up six years ago, gained major contracts with the likes of Mars Wrigley, for its breakthrough technology allowing ‘PCR’ type field testing of cocoa crops in a bid to deliver early detection of Swollen Shoot virus, which has caused major issues in both Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Sanja Fabrio (above), director of business development for Swiss DeCode believed there had been a notably promising response at the event.

She said: “Here at the Caobisco annual event, surrounded by excellent chocolates and biscuits, it’s easy to forget that cocoa’s future may be at risk. Droughts, floods and diseases such as cocoa swollen shoot virus threaten cocoa supply and livelihoods of those who grow it.

“Thanks to our first mile testing, inspection and certification capabilities, SwissDeCode is partnering with Caobisco’s members in a precompetitive quest to map and monitor the spread of this damaging virus in real time, enabling action before it’s too late to secure the future of cocoa,