Deforestation-free supply chains: The Ivory Coast’s path to sustainable cocoa

People in Switzerland consume the most chocolate per capita than anywhere else on Earth. According to the German data platform Statistica, the average person in the Alpine nation consumed 11.8 kg of chocolate or products made from cocoa in 2022. 

The European chocolate market is expanding with a projected annual growth rate of 4.95 per cent from 2022-2027. While chocolate sales are on the rise, there are growing concerns about the ethicality of chocolate supply chains in Brussels; cocoa production has long been linked to child labour, exploitation and deforestation. 

The Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, has reportedly lost more than 90 per cent of its dense forests since 1950, the clearing of trees to make way for cacao plantations is a key factor.

The European Union imports 50 per cent of the Ivory Coast's cocoa yields but from 2025, the sale of any product derived from deforestation will be banned in the EU as part of the EUDR – the European Union’s Regulation on deforestation-free products.

A tenth of the Ivory Coast's GDP comes from its cacao plantations. The West African country is working with the EU to ensure:

The lush Mabi-Yaya Forest was recently declared a protected area however, paramilitaries tasked with protecting the reserve have found evidence of illegal cacao plantations across the 294 km2 site.

"Here are the cacao plants. What happens is they set fire to the big trees. And once these trees die, the cacao immediately has access to light and produces. Some forests have disappeared because of the extensive cultivation of cocoa," Colonel Alain Toulo, from the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR), told Euronews.

One of the EU's objectives is to ensure that the cocoa planted in the Ivory