July 25, 2023 | less than a minute read

A chocolate view on Europe´s various due diligence laws

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Mark Temme

Global Business Development Manager

Get in touch

Mark Temme

Global Business Development Manager

We do all realize that the EU laws are needed and make (perfect) sense, however will all products be able to meet those requirements?

One product under the magnifying glass is cacao, as various EU laws dig deep into that supply chain, e.g. the deforestation regulation (EUDR - https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/green-deal-new-law-fight-global-deforestation-and-forest-degradation-driven-eu-production-and-2023-06-29_en ) next to the EU CSDDD.

What makes cacao so special for the EU is that approx 56% of the cacao imports go to Europe and also several of the world´s largest chocolate producing companies are from Europe. Therefore there should be an immediate impact on the global cacao production as soon as the EU regulations are implemented.

If you can't prove that cacao didn't deforest — because you don't have the traceability and you don't know where it came from — then, technically, that cocoa will not be allowed to enter the EU, ...