MD TRADE Sarl RDC, our Congolese company, is now buying cocoa on the ground in Beni, North Kivu, DR Congo. Our team is at the markets and farm gates every week, in the field vests you see below, buying directly from producers and building the first lots of traceable DR Congo cocoa for export to Europe.
Watch: 30 seconds with our team in Beni · Open on YouTube
MD TRADE Sarl RDC is the local arm of MD Trade by Marthe Dumortier NV, the commodity desk based in Wijnegem, near Antwerp, Belgium. Belgian and Congolese partners own and run it together. That gives us something most buyers don't have: our own people in the DRC, working under a local company, with the European end of the chain run from Belgium. Why more buyers are adding an eastern origin is explained in Beyond West Africa: why cocoa buyers are looking east to Beni and Kivu.
At the market: cocoa quality starts in the hand
Cocoa in North Kivu is sold fresh from the farm. Producers ferment their beans and dry them in the sun on tarps, then bring them to market in sacks. That is where we buy.
Before we agree a price, our buyers open the sacks and check the beans by hand: dryness, smell, colour and foreign matter. Only beans that meet standard export grade go into our lots. Producers deal with our own team, so they know exactly who they are selling to.
Every sack recorded, from the first kilo
Each purchase is logged on the spot in our field app, on a phone. The buyer records the producer, the weight, the moisture and the cut test, and adds photos stamped with the GPS location. The paper receipt and the digital record match.
Every sack then gets a lot code in marker and a tag. From that moment the sack can be followed from the market to the warehouse, and from the warehouse to the export lot.
This is how we prepare for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The origin of every lot is documented where the cocoa is bought, not reconstructed afterwards. Plot registration is free for the farmers we work with. What buyers need from the regulation is set out in EUDR in practice: what green coffee and cocoa buyers need from 30 December 2026.
Into the warehouse in Beni
The sacks travel by road to our warehouse in Beni. There they are checked again, weighed against the field records, and stored under tarpaulins to protect them from moisture.
In Beni the sacks are grouped into export lots. Each lot carries its full paper trail: purchase records, photos, locations and export documents. From there the cocoa goes via Kampala to the port of Mombasa and by sea to Antwerp, where Marthe Dumortier NV takes it to the European market. The route is described in From Beni to Antwerp: inside the East African corridor for Congolese coffee and cocoa.
Why we do it this way
We are a Belgian-Congolese company, and helping develop the DRC is part of who we are. Buying locally, through our own people, keeps more value in North Kivu and gives European buyers cocoa they can trace back to the market where it was bought.
Questions buyers ask about DR Congo cocoa
What grade of cocoa do you supply?
Fermented, sun-dried cocoa beans of standard export grade, with moisture of at most 7.5% and typically 100 beans or fewer per 100 g. Each lot is confirmed by a pre-shipment sample and stated in the contract. The full specification is on our DRC cocoa beans product page.
Where exactly does the cocoa come from?
From smallholder farmers and producer groups around Beni in North Kivu and in neighbouring Ituri, in the east of DR Congo.
What EUDR data comes with a lot?
Each lot is linked to its producers and plots of origin, with GPS geolocation, so EU buyers can complete their due diligence statement.
Can I sample the cocoa in Europe?
Yes. Stock can be held in Antwerp for sampling and call-off. Prices, stock positions and samples are available to roasters, importers, traders and processors after requesting market access.
Work with us. Are you a producer or cooperative in the DRC, a trader who needs help with EUDR, or a buyer looking for traceable Congolese cocoa? Contact us at info@mdtrade.eu. In the DRC, visit mdtrade.cd.
Follow our work in the field on YouTube: MD Trade Coffee & Cacao.