The Inter-Institutional Committee for Sustainable Production and Commercialisation (CIPCS) of Ecuador, the National Association of Cocoa Exporters (ANECACAO) and the Cocoa Coalition, supported by AL-INVEST Verde through the Component 2 organised the seminar "Sustainable Trade and Production" on 24 March in Guayaquil (Ecuador). During the meeting, the importance of public-private articulation in the face of the new challenges of international trade in terms of sustainability and, specifically, in the face of the "Sustainable Trade and Production". European regulation on deforestation and forest degradation-free products (EUDR).
The event, held at the premises of the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), brought together more than 60 strategic actors of the cocoa value chain. It was attended, among others, by the Ecuador's Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Danilo Palacios, and Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, Carlos Zaldumbide.The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, together with representatives of technical and financial support institutions, international cooperation agencies, and leaders of small producers' associations and exporting companies.
In his intervention, Minister Danilo Palacios referred to the importance of structuring a roadmap to strengthening institutional coordination mechanismsHe stressed the importance of harmonising EUDR implementation strategies and ensuring that no actor is left out of the alignment process. In this regard, he stressed the importance of working together with the Cocoa Coalition.
Precisely, representatives of the Cocoa Coalition also appealed to the public-private partnership for effective implementation of the EUDR. Merlyn Casanova and Edgar Zambrano, representing ANECACAO and small producers, respectively, agreed on the need to speed up and simplify the registration processes in the Agrocalidad GUIA system, not only for farmers, but also for traders, an essential link to guarantee full traceability of the grain.
They also highlighted the importance of greater coordination between the Inter-institutional Committee - which brings together government bodies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Agrocalidad, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) and others - and the Cocoa Coalition, which brings together the main private sector organisations. This coordination, they said, will be "vital" to translate technical advances into sustainable and verifiable results at the farm level.
EUDR preparedness
Since its inception, ICUCH has focused its efforts on strengthening the preparedness of the Ecuadorian cocoa sector for the EUDR. On the occasion of the seminar, they presented their progress in this regard and the five technical subcommittees that comprise it, on traceability, deforestation, land legality, labour legality and organic production.
The development of specific roadmaps for each sub-committee, aimed at guiding the actions necessary for compliance with EUDR requirements, was highlighted. In particular, significant progress was reported in the area of traceability with the incorporation of mechanisms for agile and mass registration of operators chain in Agrocalidad's GUIA System, which already has more than 72,000 geo-referenced polygons, out of a total of 400,000 cocoa farms at the national level. By the end of April, 90% data on cocoa polygons are expected to be available.
Preliminary results of a risk analysis linked to the due diligence mechanism, a requirement of the EUDR that obliges exporters to demonstrate that their products do not come from deforested areas and do not violate the country of origin's environmental, labour, tax and human rights laws, were also mentioned.
About AL-INVEST Verde
AL-INVEST Verde is a European Union (EU) programme whose main objective is to promote sustainable growth and job creation in Latin America by supporting the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient and more circular economy. Through Component 2, led by FIIAPP in consortium with IILA, the programme provides assistance for strengthening public policy and multi-stakeholder dialogues on sustainable agricultural and value chains, environmental and labour standards, as well as sustainable trade and economic policy and regulatory frameworks.