From July 1 to 11, 2026, the Café-Cacao Council will organize intensive training for agricultural technicians selected for this purpose. At the heart of the program, the Cocoa Development Plan (PDC), a structuring tool for planning, monitoring and improving cocoa farms, part of the ARS 1000 Standard for sustainable and traceable cocoa.

Designed as an instrument for optimizing agricultural practices, the PDC makes it possible to evaluate farm performance and correct inadequacies. The training aims to equip participants with solid skills in developing and deploying the PDC, ranging from field data collection to constraints analysis, to rigorous planning of cocoa activities. At the end of this training, specialized agricultural technicians will be empowered to support cooperatives and producers in defining sustainable management objectives, establishing performance indicators and developing appropriate monitoring tools. They will also be responsible for training the relay farmers in data collection and local coaching of producers.

This initiative is part of the desire of the Coffee-Cocoa Council to guarantee a harmonized application of the ARS 1000 Standard, a guarantee of the competitiveness of Ivorian cocoa on the markets international.