Cocoa exporters face EU traceability deadline on 30 December 2026

Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, published in December 2025, sets the 30 December 2026 deadline for large and medium operators and 30 June 2027 for micro and small operators, Africa Sustainability Matters reported. Importers must show cocoa was not grown on land deforested after 31 December 2020 and that it was produced under local laws. They must trace each consignment to the plot where it grew.

Most West African cocoa is grown by smallholders, DW reported, but the rules reach them through the exporters and importers that must document each consignment. Exporters have to map individual farms, verify land use and keep digital records that EU buyers can rely on, Reuters reported.

Compliance costs

Sunbeth Global, a Nigerian exporter, spent three years mapping 124,000 hectares covering about 60,000 tonnes of cocoa at $30 to $70 a tonne. Chief operating officer Nzubechukwu Anisiobi said early talks with buyers brought pushback over who will bear the cost. "The cost-benefit analysis right now is eating into our margins," he said.

Starlink Global and Ideal, Nigeria's biggest cocoa exporter, said it spent $40 to $80 a tonne mapping and tracing its supply chain since 2023, costs it says have yet to be recovered from European buyers. At $30 to $70 a tonne, mapping costs equal about 1% to 2.3% of the roughly $3,000 world price; Starlink's $40 to $80 range equals 1.3% to 2.7%.

In Côte d'Ivoire only about half the cocoa can be traced to where it was grown, NPO Trase said in a May study. West Africa produces about 70% of the world's cocoa and ships about two-thirds of it to the EU, data from the World Bank, EU and UN show. Industry experts estimate that farmers producing more than half of Nigeria's cocoa could fail the rules; the country has about 300,000 mostly small-scale growers, according to the Nigerian Export Promotion Council.

Price slump

Tumbling prices risk slowing preparations for the EUDR because farmers and industry groups are struggling to bear tracing costs, EUobserver reported. Cocoa peaked at about $12,000 a tonne in 2024, according to ABC and EUobserver, while DW put the high at nearly $13,000. It traded near $3,000 by early April 2026, a fall of more than 75%, DW reported.

EUobserver reported that Ghana's finance minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, announced a nearly 30% cut in the wholesale price farmers receive, from about €290 to €210 per 64kg bag, and that Cocobod owes around €800m to cocoa farmers. The BBC reported that payment delays are thought to affect some 800,000 farmers, and that cocoa accounts for about 7% of Ghana's GDP while cocoa exports make up around 15% of foreign exchange earnings.

What happens next

Brussels has indicated no further postponement after its 4 May simplification package, Africa Sustainability Matters reported. Sustainability consultant Nicko Debenham estimates an EU supply squeeze could last about two years, during which exporters that invested in compliance could command a premium from chocolate makers.