With West African cocoa producers facing growing difficulties meeting the European Union’s deforestation and traceability requirements ahead of the December 2026 deadline, Nigeria must accelerate efforts to establish a fully operational national cocoa traceability system, a development advocate has said.

Ayo David Adeyemi, an advocate for sustainable development and Executive Director of PIPO GLOBAL Ltd, made the call amid concerns over Nigeria’s preparedness for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

Cocoa farming is a major source of livelihood across the forest belts of Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, with the three countries accounting for about 55 per cent of global cocoa production, based on recent International Cocoa Organisation estimates.

Under the EUDR, importers of cocoa and other covered commodities into the EU must demonstrate that their products were not produced on land subject to deforestation after the regulation’s cut-off date, including by tracing commodities to the plots where they were produced.

Adeyemi said Nigeria must treat traceability as a national development priority, particularly because its cocoa sector is dominated by smallholder farmers.

“There is a need to map cocoa farms. This would have been easier if most producers operated large plantations, but the reality is that most Nigerian cocoa farmers are smallholders.

With about 300,000 farmers, the scale is significant, but mapping can still be achieved through collaboration among government agencies, local authorities, farmers’ associations, and cooperatives,” he said.

He also called for farmer education through mass media, farmers’ unions, cooperatives, and community leaders.

While Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have made progress in developing national traceability systems, Nigeria’s efforts remain largely at the planning and development stage.

Ghana has rolled out a national system incorporating farm-level geolocation, while Côte d’Ivoire has developed systems for tracking cocoa production and assessing deforestation risks.

With the EUDR due to apply from 30 December 2026, Adeyemi said Nigeria must move from planning to implementation and ensure its cocoa supply chains meet the requirements before the deadline.

He therefore urged the Federal Government to treat compliance as an investment.

“Governments should see this as an opportunity to create a national system rather than leaving individual exporters to bear the entire cost of compliance.

“It should support farmers with the cost of farm mapping, registration, and documentation, while working through cooperatives to make the process more efficient,” he said.

Major cocoa exporting companies have begun mapping and geolocating supplier farms, but the process is expensive, particularly when working with large numbers of smallholder farmers.

Adeyemi commended the European Union for supporting producer countries through its Sustainable Cocoa Initiative in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon, including through financial and technical assistance.

However, he stressed that EUDR implementation should remain proportionate to the realities of smallholder agriculture and that compliance costs should not fall disproportionately on farmers.

“Losing access to the European market, he warned, could affect farmers’ incomes, local economies, exporters, employment and government revenue.

“This is undesirable and must be avoided. Nigeria cannot afford to wait until its farmers and exporters begin losing market access before putting the necessary systems in place,” he said.

Adeyemi said the EUDR could also provide an opportunity for Nigeria to modernise its agricultural sector, improve knowledge of farm locations and production, and strengthen its position in sustainability-driven global trade.

“Africa should use the EUDR deadline as a push to modernise its agricultural traceability systems, while ensuring that the cost of compliance is not left on smallholder farmers alone,” he said.

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