Workshop on Swiss and EU Requirements for Spices, Cacao, and Coconut Derivative Products

Peni Agustijanto from RIKOLTO explains regarding quality standard and some import regulations mainly for cacao. He mentioned the importance of traceability system in cacao sector due to the upcoming EU Deforestation-Free Regulation which will be enacted by the end of 2025. “It is crucial for cacao suppliers to have robust and transparent traceability system to ensure the products are not coming from deforested land, as well as to have clear certificate of ownership of the land” said Peni Agustijanto, as this will ensure the buyers that the suppliers comply with the sustainability standards.

Gracia A. Girsang and Annisa Hapsari, as Trade Attaches, explain the strategy, the opportunities, and the challenges to penetrate to both Swiss market and Netherland market. Whilst coffee and spices have high potential to enter to both markets, Swiss market is also looking for high quality essential oil as they found the demand is quite high. The market in Switzerland and Netherlands is competitive and really into high quality standard products – which will result in high cost of production from the supplier’s side. However, both countries now offer Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA) with EFTA countries and EU countries. This is a big opportunity that should be optimized by the government and the suppliers.

Daarnhouwer – a company that has more than 100 years of experience in cocoa, also attended this workshop to share on how their buying decisions were made. They also clarified a structured, step-by-step protocol that they do with the suppliers to ensure the compliance with EUDR. “Our goal is to ensure legal compliance and actively prevent deforestation through transparent, verified supply chains. We are looking for suppliers who have geodata, traceability, and due diligence documents, and we will do the rest – to review and validate the data, confirming its legal compliance”, explained by Laura Mack, Head of Sustainability Daarnhouwer.

Jeroen Kruft shared a marketing strategy towards European buyers. One of the things highlighted was the importance of Unique Selling Points of the companies. “It is necessary to explain what makes your company special, how does your company benefit the environment and lives of the community surroundings, then put this story in your website”, said Jeroen Kruft. Website will be the first door for buyer to get to know your company, therefore it is essential to make it interesting for the first sight.

Lastly, the MoMSME also took this opportunity to conduct internal training on the methodology of company assessment that was used during the commercial mission of coffee in 2024. Mahendra from MoMSME, explained the key seven areas need to be assessed from the companies to ensure they are well fitted with the EU and Swiss buyers, including 1) organizational aspect, 2) production, quality control, and certification, 3) finance, 4) marketing, 5) sales, 6) sustainability, 7) traceability/due diligence. This criteria will be used to assess the companies’ strength and readiness to export to European buyers. The scores of each aspect here will then be transferred to a spider diagram, so it will help the MoMSME to select the companies to join the commercial mission. Additionally, it also provides information on which areas that need more support from the BSO and which areas that they can promote to the buyers.

In overall, MoMSME as SIPPO’s BSO as well as the exporters learned a lot of skills that will benefit them in organizing commercial mission. They learned the importance of quality standards of products required by European buyers, the importance of certifications to enter the Swiss and EU markets – and hence the importance of having centralized information platform, and they were able to identify which products or commodities should they prioritize for export to Switzerland and the Netherlands, and how to market them to the importers. It is hopeful that following this workshop, the BSO would be able to integrate these materials into their export promotion strategy.