Working towards the Traceability of Colombian Cocoa

With a common goal, the collective construction of the Productive Planning for the Cocoa Chain and Agroindustry is advancing: to make the country a leader in the production of fine aroma cocoa with designation of origin. Thus, cocoa becomes a social and productive endeavor with a future in Colombia. 

 

The cocoa expert at the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA), engineer César Mauricio Moya, explains the importance of this product for our country: 

 

"First, it is a traditional crop of family and community peasant agriculture. More than 65,000 families are dedicated to this work; second, the country has very favorable agroclimatic environmental conditions for the development of these crops. According to the zoning by UPRA, there are more than 17,000,000 hectares suitable in Colombia for this crop, of which seven million have high suitability." 

 
 

Cocoa farming families are located in 560 municipalities across the country; they cultivate about 190,000 hectares and produce more than 62,000 tons per year, of which 35% are exported. So, if we want to increase exports, we must work together to improve the traceability of this product. 

 

Accordingly, the General Director of UPRA, Claudia Cortés López, stated the following: 

 

"The relevance of the traceability program lies in EU Regulation 1115, according to which all cocoa producers must comply with some provisions in terms of human rights, land tenure, reduction of traces of chemical inputs, and particularly deforestation. This exercise of foresight that was carried out from the cocoa POP is very important because we had already assumed it as one of the tasks that all the agents intervening in this chain were willing to carry out, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, its affiliated entities and of course, UPRA." 

 

The Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) plays a fundamental role in this matter. In this regard, Luis Gerardo Arias, Deputy Manager of Plant Protection at ICA, stated: 

 

"This traceability program is a recent initiative of the national Government, which assumes that international markets, to a greater or lesser extent and sooner or later, will eventually demand it, and they want to know more and more about where each of the foods and products comes from, especially when they come from other latitudes, as is the case with the international market for Colombia Origin products." 

 

In that process, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has formulated clear guidelines. It is up to ICA to gather much of that information and implement measures and traceability processes from origin to finished product. With this, it is intended to advance in technological applications for the capture of information with the presence of technicians in the territories. As clear, timely, truthful, and reliable information is obtained, consumers will place more trust in the acquisition of Colombian cocoa, not only in the domestic market but also in international markets. 

 

In conclusion, Luis Gerardo Arias explained, regarding the export of Colombian cocoa: 

 

"Cocoa is one of the products destined to be pioneers in the international market, as it is a product for which there is currently a global deficit. We have a whole panorama of growth, a very serious organization, a structured federation, and very committed producers, that is, the entire panorama is set up for it to be successful. However, there are some important challenges that we have to take on, issues that are purely technical and very much linked to the production process." 

 

These challenges are included in the productive planning (POP) plan and are configured as the axis of this planning instrument that the cocoa sector has for the next twenty years.
 

We invite you to participate in the POP for the ​Cocoa Chain and Agroindustry at this link on the UPRA website.