Nigeria and Cameroon expand cocoa traceability ahead of EU deforestation rules
Nigeria is building a national cocoa traceability system around satellite mapping, while Cameroon has renewed a three-year traceability partnership with Germany’s Cooko. Gaps in farm coverage, data sharing and financing could still restrict some producers’ access to the EU market.
Two national routes to EUDR compliance
Nigeria and Cameroon are expanding cocoa traceability systems as the European Union prepares to apply its deforestation regulation to large and medium-sized operators from 30 December 2026. The European Commission says covered products must be deforestation-free and produced in accordance with the laws of their country of origin. Cocoa is one of seven commodities covered by the regulation.
Business AM reports that the EU buys roughly 60–70% of Nigeria’s cocoa exports, representing a market valued at €1.5 billion. Nigeria is developing a National Traceability System supported by cooperation between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the National Space Research and Development Agency, or NASRDA. The agency is providing satellite imagery intended to help verify whether cocoa plots have experienced forest degradation since the EU cutoff date of 31 December 2020.
A pilot covers five major producing states: Cross River, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo and Osun. Exporters have also been directed to register through the federal government’s National Single Window portal, which is intended to improve digital chain-of-custody records. Other producing states, including Ekiti, Akwa Ibom and Edo, are not listed among the initial five-state pilot.
Private mapping leads Nigerian coverage
Private exporters are already mapping farms while public infrastructure is being developed. Business AM says Sunbeth Global Concepts has mapped more than 140,000 hectares involving over 30,000 smallholders. That area represents roughly 20% of Nigeria’s projected cocoa supply. Private companies estimate mapping costs at $30–$80 per metric tonne, with much of the expense currently absorbed by West African intermediaries.
Coverage nevertheless remains incomplete. Business AM reports that more than 50% of Nigeria’s smallholder cocoa farms risk being left behind temporarily because many holdings are remote, smaller than four hectares and difficult to connect to real-time digital systems. An earlier assessment prepared for the EU delegation in Nigeria estimated that around 50% of cocoa farms had been geolocated by July 2024, but warned that geolocation alone did not establish EUDR compliance. The assessment also said small plots, agroforestry cover and multiple intermediaries complicated traceability.
Cameroon renews partnership without targets
Cameroon’s National Cocoa and Coffee Board, known as ONCC, has signed a new three-year memorandum with German traceability and post-harvest fermentation specialist Cooko. The agreement, signed in Douala by ONCC Director-General Michael Ndoping and Cooko Country Director Epanty Mbanda, replaces an arrangement dating from September 2021. According to ONCC information cited by Business AM, it covers cocoa quality, research, data infrastructure, producer incomes, agricultural entrepreneurship and public policy.
The planned first-mile system includes farm mapping, geospatial monitoring, harvest registration and auditable transaction records. However, ONCC did not disclose results from the first phase or publish targets, a budget, funding sources or interim deadlines for the next three years. It also did not state how many farms and producers have been registered, how much land has been geolocated or what volume of cocoa is traceable. Cameroon is separately developing land-cover maps and cocoa-area models with the EU and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization; the first results were presented in November 2025, according to the FAO.
Market access depends on usable data
The immediate commercial issue is whether farm-level information can be connected reliably to export lots and made available to EU operators conducting due diligence. Nigeria’s private mapping scale is measurable, but national coverage remains uneven. Cameroon has renewed institutional cooperation, but its published agreement lacks performance indicators. For exporters and European buyers, interoperability, data ownership and verification will determine whether the new systems reduce compliance risk.
Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana also signed the Abuja Declaration in July 2026. Business AM says the four producers aim to standardize traceability software, align sustainability metrics and seek greater financial participation from international buyers. Without broader coverage and shared costs, the market could split between traceable cocoa eligible for EU supply chains and unmapped cocoa sold to alternative destinations, potentially at a discount.
