ECAM’s Cocoa Process in Daloa
In the vibrant city of Daloa, ECAM’s sustainability mission comes to life daily at its bustling cocoa processing site. The depot operates as a nexus where farmers, technology, and global trade intersect, ensuring transparency, fairness, and environmental stewardship in every step.
Under the morning sun, the first sacks of raw cocoa beans arrive, their burlap sides stretched and dusted with the region’s signature red earth. Each delivery—an average of 180 kilograms across three sacks—is carried from farms in the surrounding region by farmers who accompany their harvests. These farmers are more than witnesses; they are active participants in verifying the journey of their cocoa from soil to sale.
At the processing site, ECAM’s workers move with practiced efficiency. Each sack is emptied onto a large tarp for sifting, revealing a cascade of dark beans that must meet the high-quality standards expected by both national regulations and global buyers. The sifting process is meticulous. Workers crouch low, their trained hands swiftly removing small stones, dry twigs, and under-ripe pods. What remains are clean, uniform beans, ready for weighing, documentation, and transport.
Once sifted, the beans are carefully returned to clean sacks, sewn with a seal, and labeled with traceable barcodes. This labeling links each sack directly to its farmer, the cooperative, and the region of origin—key data points in ECAM’s rigorous record-keeping system. Transparency is paramount. The system ensures that every step is tracked, providing a reliable trail for government audits, internal reviews, and sustainability reporting.
At the weighing station, the process becomes even more precise. A digital scale records the exact weight of each filled sack, with the information immediately uploaded to ECAM’s proprietary app. Registered farmers are present throughout. We use smartphones to verify the data in real-time. The app generates a digital receipt that includes critical details: the farmer region’s names, the sack weights, traceability codes, and the payment amount based on the government’s fixed price for cocoa.
Payment is processed immediately, directly into the farmer’s account, accompanied by a printed receipt. This seamless system not only ensures fairness but also aligns with ECAM’s commitment to accountability. Each receipt is archived within ECAM’s central database, ensuring that records are available for inspection by government authorities, company stakeholders, and international partners like Cargill.
Beyond the transactional, this process reflects ECAM’s sustainability ethos. By empowering farmers with real-time verification and direct compensation, the company strengthens the local agricultural economy while meeting global standards for transparency and traceability.
Once labeled and sealed, the sacks are stacked systematically, awaiting transport to the next stage in the supply chain. When trucks arrive to carry the cocoa—now fully documented and compliant with both local regulations and Cargill’s sustainable sourcing requirements—toward shipping facilities. From there, it will continue its journey to meet the world’s demand for ethically sourced cocoa.
For ECAM, this process is more than logistics; it’s a promise. Every scanned barcode, every weighed sack, every recorded transaction reinforces the company’s mission to support farmers, protect natural resources, and ensure the integrity of Ivory Coast’s agricultural exports.
As the day winds down, the processing site hums with activity, a testament to ECAM’s dedication to sustainability and innovation. This is not just the movement of cocoa—it is the movement of progress, one sack, one farmer, one transaction at a time.