The challenges we observed on the ground

In many cases, farmers are asked to provide geo-data for their farms without any explanation of what the data will be used for or what the EUDR entails. This lack of context leads to critical challenges:

• Continued expansion of farmland: We spoke with many cocoa-farming families who rely on expanding cultivation within their land to secure a basic income. However, without understanding that such expansion could be flagged as deforestation under EUDR, they risk being unintentionally excluded from the market.
• Incorrect mapping of farm plots: We also observed cases where farmers included non-agricultural land or plots used for other commodities in their mapping. Without proper guidance, this can lead to false positives in deforestation risk assessments — triggering unnecessary investigations, creating extra work for all parties involved, and ultimately blocking access to compliant supply chains.

The importance of dialogue and knowledge transfer

Once you begin a conversation at eye level with farmers in origin countries, it becomes clear just how many unanswered questions they have — and how little information has been provided to them in the past.

Here are some examples of what many farmers we talked to have never heard of:

• What the EUDR is, why their farms need to be mapped, and what it means for their livelihoods
• Why preserving rainforests is globally important
• What organic production involves
• How international cocoa pricing works

Yet despite the knowledge gap we observed, there was genuine curiosity and a strong desire to understand the bigger picture — they had simply never had access to it. In some cases, we also heard that buyers deliberately withhold information, creating artificial knowledge scarcity. This keeps farmers dependent and limits their ability to access other markets, as they lack both the documentation and understanding required to meet sourcing standards independently.

When open dialogue and knowledge transfer happen, the shift is remarkable: farmers become engaged, proactive, and eager to contribute. Instead of being treated — or seeing themselves — as passive data providers, they start thinking actively about:

• What documents and proof can they share
• How to define farm boundaries accurately
• How to comply confidently with the regulation

For example, one farmer we spoke to mentioned that he also sources cocoa from nearby growers — and immediately suggested mapping those plots as well. This kind of initiative only emerges when people understand why the process matters — and it is exactly this kind of engagement that is essential for achieving effective, inclusive compliance.

The way forward: From data collection to co-creation

At Seedtrace, we place great importance on creating holistic solutions that reflect the realities of all actors in the supply chain. This means not only facilitating efficient collaboration with suppliers to collect, validate, and verify relevant data through our platform but also equipping partners with the tools and resources to drive education and knowledge transfer through detailed supplier onboarding materials. Our goal is to encourage companies to move beyond box-ticking towards genuine engagement with their supply chains — building processes that deliver real, lasting sustainability rather than just technical compliance.

A strong example of bridging local realities with global compliance standards is the work of our partner COOKO in Cameroon, which demonstrates how supplier engagement can make traceability and compliance both effective and inclusive.

COOKO’s approach includes:

• Sharing polygon data with farmers after mapping, ensuring transparency and ownership.
• Conducting thorough onboarding sessions and briefings that allow space for questions, dialogue, and mutual learning.
• Communicating on eye level, recognising farmers as experts in their own context and essential partners in achieving traceability goals.

In this way, COOKO demonstrates that traceability not only ensures compliance but also fosters inclusive and future-proof business relationships. Their collaborative approach goes beyond data extraction: it builds trust and mutual understanding — critical factors in empowering farmers to take an active role in compliance.