Ghana- Shaping the regional standard for sustainable cocoa together

Developed under the umbrella of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), this standard offers a harmonized framework for sustainability across the cocoa value chain in Africa.  It was co-developed by cocoa producing countries such as Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and sets requirements for environmental, social, and economic sustainability of cocoa production in Africa. This milestone marks a major step towards aligning African cocoa with global benchmarks, empowering producers, and strengthening intra-African trade within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

A planning Workshop organized in Koforidua by the GIZ- Sustainable Cocoa Programme strengthened the capacities of the technical working team working on the implementation of the standard within the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). Simon Crown, COCOBOD’s Deputy Director for Research and Development, underlined its role in the implementation process: “The Ghana Cocoa Board has played a pivotal role in the development of the African Regional Standard for Sustainable Cocoa. In pursuit of this objective, we have established a dedicated Scheme Management Office (SMO) within the Cocoa Board to coordinate implementation efforts.”  

The workshop brought together the technical working team of the Ghana Cocoa Board and representatives from European Forest Institute, Ghana Standards Authority, Control Union and Rainforest Alliance. Participants focused on developing a comprehensive road map for the implementation of the new standard in Ghana and joined forces to shape a unified path forward for Africa’s cocoa excellence. Claudia Maier, GIZ Project Manager, reiterates that Ghana is not implementing the new standard from the scratch: „In cooperation with GIZ’s Sustainable Cocoa Programme, the Ghana Cocoa Board has already realized several achievements: They created and applied the Ghana Cocoa Traceability System, piloted the Cocoa Sector – Child Labor Monitoring System, mainstreamed gender in the cocoa supply chain, and integrated environmental topics in the regular training programmes for farmers. These achievements will contribute to Ghana’s genuine, experience driven way of establishing a new sustainability standard in the African cocoa sector”. 

Ghana is positioning itself not just as a major cocoa producer, but as a responsible and forward-looking actor in the global supply chain. The adoption of the new standard in Ghana will help cocoa producers and exporters to maintain the quality of their product, and will align their practices with external regulatory regimes such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).