EUDR geolocation for cocoa: smallholder plots and cooperative files

Cocoa beans, paste, butter, powder and chocolate are all in Annex I (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Annex I). Whatever the product, the geolocation is that of the plots the beans grew on.

What cocoa files tend to look like

Cocoa is commonly grown on small farms and bought through cooperatives or collectors, so a single statement can involve many producers and many small plots. That shapes the file:

• Points are often enough. A plot of four hectares or less can be a single point with its Area (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(28)). Plots over four hectares need a polygon.
• Type II files. A cooperative's file covering many members is a Type II file, and every plot needs a ProducerCountry (GeoJSON File Description, File Variants Description, Type II).
• The producer limit. At most 1,000 producers per commodity in one statement (Information System validation rules, Geolocation Producers information).

Problems to look for

• This point has no Area, so it will be treated as 4 hectares (PROP-004): lists of GPS points with no Area column, which makes every plot four hectares.
• A plot over 4 hectares cannot be a single point (PROP-005): larger farms recorded as a single point.
• Coordinates carry fewer than six decimal places (COORD-004): coordinates rounded in a spreadsheet before they reached you.
• Two plots in this file overlap or are identical (PLAUS-002): the same farm declared through two cooperatives.
• A property name is misspelled or has the wrong capitals (PROP-001): column names from a survey form (area_ha, farmer) that the Information System ignores.

Boundaries walked under shade trees are noisier than those walked in open fields; see mapping with a phone.