EUDR Advisory / Traceability

A century of shipping
beans is being renegotiated.

In July 2026 Cameroon joined Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria in signing the Abuja Declaration, establishing the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance. For Cameroonian cocoa businesses it changes three things at once: where processing happens, how traceability is recognised, and who negotiates with the buyer.

The Abuja Declaration,
in five points

Written from the public record of the summit. Where official figures differ between sources, both are given rather than the more flattering one.

The route

Signed in Abuja, July 2026

Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria signed the Abuja Declaration at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026, held under the theme “From Bean to Brand” and convened by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with the Bank of Industry as co-convener.

Roughly two-thirds of world production

Together the signatories account for around two-thirds of global cocoa output, figures between two-thirds and three-quarters appear across official statements, while capturing a far smaller share of the value created downstream.

One voice on standards and buyers

Members commit to coordinate industrial policy, harmonise standards, promote processing at origin, and engage international buyers and regulators as a single bloc rather than as competing sellers.

A common position on EUDR

Members agreed to press for international recognition of their national traceability systems, and for the principle that compliance costs should not be pushed down onto smallholder farmers.

Nigeria’s national accord

Alongside the Declaration, Nigeria signed a separate Cocoa Value Addition Accord binding federal government, state governors, farmer and industry associations, researchers and development financiers to measurable commitments, overseen by a delivery council reporting publicly each year.

Commodity view

Where the alliance
touches your business

Processing becomes policy-backed

Value addition at origin moves from aspiration to a coordinated industrial agenda across four governments — which changes the case you can make to a lender or investor.

Traceability may be recognised, not duplicated

If national systems win recognition, the cost of proving origin falls. If not, exporters carry two parallel systems. Build data that can serve either outcome.

Standards will harmonise across four markets

Common quality and sustainability standards are easier to meet if you are positioned before they are set.

Compliance costs are being contested

The stated principle is that smallholders should not bear EUDR compliance costs. Where that cost lands instead is a live commercial question.

Processed cocoa is an AfCFTA product

The moment you grind, press or manufacture at origin, regional sales become a rules-of-origin question rather than a commodity trade.

Price volatility is the backdrop

Cocoa has moved through extraordinary swings since 2024. Coordination is a response to that volatility, not a cure for it.

Engagements

How Balia Consulting can help

01

Alliance briefing and impact assessment

What the Declaration does and does not commit your government to, what is likely to change in standards and traceability policy, and what it means for your contracts over the next two seasons.

02

Value addition feasibility and investment case

Grinding, butter, liquor, powder or finished chocolate: what is viable at your volume, what capital and energy it requires, and where the financing windows sit.

03

Traceability system alignment

Preparing your data to satisfy a national traceability system and an EU due diligence file at once, rather than paying twice for the same proof.

04

Standards harmonisation readiness

Positioning for common quality and sustainability standards across the four markets before they are set.

05

Processed cocoa under AfCFTA

Rules of origin determination, certificate procedure and regional market selection for cocoa products.

06

Policy engagement support

Evidence, position papers and briefing material for associations, cooperatives and public bodies contributing to the Alliance agenda.