New Standards for the Cocoa Value Chain in East Africa

Coordinated by the Burundi Bureau of Standards and bringing together private and public institutions, the three-day meeting has been looking at standards and where Burundi currently falls short and can improve to become more competitive in regional and international markets. A gap analysis undertaken by MARKUP in 2019 established that about 60% of the priority MARKUP value chains did not have harmonised standards, among them all commodities falling under the cocoa value chain. Standards under the spotlight are cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa powders and chocolate and chocolate products. Understanding and being able to meet international standards on this range of cocoa products will help the local cocoa producers and everyone along the cocoa value chain capitalise on growing global demand, as well as simply being able to present a world class product to market. Representatives from the Burundi Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Agro-Industry Risk Management Society, ARIMA, the Farmers and Processors Association and Mutoyi Cooperative all took part.

The EA Standards Technical Committee on Coffee, Cocoa and related products will then consider the inputs received and submit the revised standards to the EA Standards Committee for approval.