04.09.2025 in Douala | German-Cameroonian partnership strengthens traceability and sustainability of cocoa in Cameroon
Advancing Digital Traceability in Cameroon’s Cocoa Sector
The joint visit by the Head and Deputy Head of German Cooperation in Cameroon, Knut Gummert and Katrin Friedrichs-Peusmann marked a milestone in the long-term collaboration between Cameroonian institutions and German development cooperation in the field of digitalisation and traceability in the Cameroonian cocoa value chain.
As part of this partnership, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC) received IT equipment to support the deployment of a digital system for monitoring the commercialisation of cocoa. The ONCC will host the servers and operate the system, while GIZ financed the development of the application and the equipment for eight regional offices. This shared effort aims to make market flows more transparent and efficient, ultimately contributing to fairer and more sustainable trade.
At the same time, the Interprofessional Cocoa and Coffee Council (CICC) received georeferencing data covering an additional 26,000 cocoa plots and producers, collected between 2024 and 2025. This contribution complements the CICC’s broader effort to geolocate over 140,000 producers nationwide, each linked to a unique digital identity and mapped parcel(s). Together, these datasets mark a milestone towards compliance with the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR).
By hosting the national traceability system, ONCC is taking a decisive step toward digital sovereignty. Together with our partners, we are ensuring that transparency and efficiency become the norm in Cameroon’s cocoa trade.
Geolocating producers is more than a technical exercise — it’s about giving every farmer a digital identity and a place in a more formal economy. This is key to building a sector that is both competitive and fair.
Digitalisation, however, is not an end in itself. While progress has been significant, key challenges remain – for example in linking digital traceability with land rights documentation. Many smallholders still cultivate on customary land without formal recognition, creating potential bottlenecks for legal verification under the EUDR.
Through these joint initiatives, the German Cooperation and the European Union reaffirm their commitment to supporting Cameroon’s partners in modernising agricultural value chains. Digital tools, when co-owned and co-managed by national institutions, are not just technological upgrades – they are instruments of sovereignty, sustainability, and inclusion.
The European Union’s Sustainable Cocoa Programme (SCP) in Cameroon is part of the EU Sustainable Cocoa Initiative (SCI), co-financed by the BMZ and the European Union and implemented by all partners, namely the European Forest Institute (EFI), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union.
