"Green Horizons: Training, Employment, and Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Côte d'Ivoire” is the new project, supported by the Department for Civil Liberties of the Italian Ministry of Home Affairs, aimed at promoting sustainable growth and economic inclusion for women, young people, and other disadvantaged groups in the regions of Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, and Bouna.
This marks Trusty's second initiative in Côte d'Ivoire, following “Fair & Trusty Trade,” a project focused on transparency and traceability in the cocoa supply chain.
The global cocoa industry has long faced the urgent need for greater transparency and fairness. Today, these structural challenges are compounded by the impact of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and a particularly severe sectoral crisis. Côte d'Ivoire, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been hit hard, with climate change, the spread of plant diseases, and low labor wages leading to a sharp decline in production — from 2.2 million tons per year to just 1.4 million[1]. On top of this, the country is contending with U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, set at 21% — the highest in West Africa[2].
In this context, Trusty — a Benefit Corporation and innovative company leveraging blockchain technology to ensure regulatory compliance and traceability in agri-food supply chains, including cocoa and coffee — is emerging as a key player, offering cutting-edge technological solutions to tackle these systemic issues.
One such example is “Green Horizons: Training, Employment, and Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Côte d'Ivoire,” a new project backed by the Department for Civil Liberties of the Ministry of the Interior and promoted by the NGO Centro ELIS Association. The project focuses on fostering sustainable growth and economic inclusion for women, young people, and other disadvantaged groups in the Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, and Bouna regions.
Running until 2027, the initiative aims to improve the employability of 320 young Ivorians (aged 18–35) at risk of socio-economic marginalization and irregular migration. It will provide them with vocational training in green economy sectors such as solar energy, plastic recycling, clean cooking, organic farming, and agro-pastoral activities.
This is Trusty's second project in Côte d'Ivoire, following “Fair & Trusty Trade: Traceability, Transparency, and Trust in the Cocoa Supply Chain,” a social impact initiative funded by AICS (the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation) and carried out in collaboration with Apio S.r.l.
The "Fair & Trusty Trade" Project for Cocoa Supply Chain Transparency
Running from June 2021 to November 2023, “Fair & Trusty Trade” was designed to reshape Côte d'Ivoire’s cocoa sector into a more transparent and equitable model. Trusty's technology was implemented in close collaboration with Comoé Equitable, the Ivorian company behind the renowned CHOCO+ brand — the first 100% Ivorian, 100% fair-trade cocoa processing lab — which adopted the Trusty platform from the pilot phase to ensure full traceability of its products. Local cocoa cooperatives, Agrimagni and Yosran, also actively participated, benefiting from Trusty’s technology to simplify and enhance information management throughout their supply chains.
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“Cocoa supply chains in Africa often suffer from poor visibility, making it very difficult to verify ethical practices and ultimately harming smallholder farmers' livelihoods,” explains Alessandro Chelli, Founder and CEO of Trusty. “Trusty's innovative platform tackles these issues head-on, enabling simple and secure data collection and sharing from farm to consumer. Thanks to accessible tools like smartphone and tablet apps and the Track & Trace functionality, the project was able to prove the origin and journey of the cocoa, strengthen consumer trust, and, most importantly, ensure that the added value returned directly to the farmers, the true heart of production.”
The Economic and Social Impact of the Project
The project's impact has been tangible and long-lasting. In 2023, the Yosran cooperative — comprising 158 farmers and 186 farms over a total of 418 hectares of certified organic cocoa — achieved triple the standard certification Premium Price per ton from Domori, a prestigious Italian chocolate maker, for about 100 tons of cocoa. This was made possible through the traceability and quality guaranteed by Trusty’s platform and facilitated by COCOASOURCE.
“The additional price paid above the market price is directly redistributed to the farmers, immediately improving their working conditions on their farms. Another portion of the premium is used by the cooperative to fund strategies like collective pruning teams or improvements to irrigation systems — all aimed at helping farmers boost productivity while reducing labor intensity through a cooperative approach,” says Andrea Mecozzi, Italian cocoa sourcer and Founder and Coordinator of Chocofair, one of the partners in the Fair & Trusty Trade project.
Trusty’s transparency also extends to the final consumer. In October 2021, 3,000 CHOCO+ chocolate bars, produced locally and distributed in Italy by Domori in partnership with the Abele Group, were uploaded to the Trusty platform, allowing Italian consumers to trace the entire supply chain via a simple QR code on the packaging.
Another standout example is the collaboration with the renowned De’ Coltelli gelato shop in Pisa, which used cocoa mass produced by CHOCO+ with organic beans from Yosran to create the first blockchain-traced chocolate gelato, giving customers the opportunity to discover the full story behind the product they were enjoying.
Beyond economic benefits, the project has generated significant social progress. Today, CHOCO+ provides stable employment for 10 people, 70% of whom are women and 40% come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Throughout the project, technical training and support on using the Trusty system were provided to local staff and cooperatives, promoting crucial knowledge transfer for the initiative’s long-term sustainability.
Discover more about the project and Trusty’s commitment in Côte d'Ivoire:
https://www.trusty.id/it/post/viaggio-in-costa-davorio-blockchain-filiera-cacao
https://www.trusty.id/it/post/viaggio-in-costa-davorio-capitolo-ii-blockchain-e-filiera-del-cacao
https://www.trusty.id/it/post/viaggio-in-costa-davorio-capitolo-iii-blockchain-e-filiera-del-cacao
https://www.trusty.id/it/post/viaggio-in-costa-davorio-capitolo-iv-blockchain-e-filiera-del-cacao
[1]https://www.africaeaffari.it/africa-cacao-prezzi-alle-stelle/
[2]https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ivory-coast-threatens-more-expensive-cocoa-response-us-tariffs-2025-04-10/
