Traceable right back to the farm: our organic cocoa from Bundibugyo, Uganda

The Bundibugyo Valley lies nestled between the Rwenzori Mountains – a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Africa’s third-highest peak – and Semuliki National Park, the easternmost extension of the Congo rainforest and one of the most biodiverse rainforest regions in Africa. In this unique ecosystem between montane forest and lowland rainforest, young, fertile soils produce cocoa of the finest quality – and exclusively organic: the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides is prohibited in the valley by a locally enacted law. Since 2024, Stella Bernrain has been directly involved in the ‘Organic Valley Bundibugyo’ project as its first offtake partner, sourcing the cocoa for our organic and Fairtrade-certified products – creating added value for people and nature.

The project is driven by SusChain, an initiative for transparency and fairness in commodity supply chains. Stella Bernrain has been a strategic partner since the very beginning and was the first to purchase certified organic cocoa from the project. Trade takes place without intermediaries, ensuring better producer prices, transparent pricing and reliable planning for both sides. Instead of conventional trading margins, the platform charges a fee that covers training, quality control, export handling and the further development of the platform. All surpluses flow directly back to origin – into the agroforestry fund, which reforests degraded land and establishes multi-layered agroforestry systems for regenerative agriculture. A model that benefits everyone: the producers and their cooperatives, the environment, us as a partner and you as a customer.

Every cooperative records its purchases in the SusChain Cocoa Manager – from the individual farmer to the export-ready lot. This allows the cocoa to be traced seamlessly from the field in the Bundibugyo Valley to the finished chocolate and followed on a digital map. Certificates, export documents and deforestation risk assessments are consolidated in one place, supporting documentation for the EUDR and other compliance requirements. Finally, the SusChain Tracker makes this transparency tangible to a wider audience: it visualises the entire supply chain and complements it with images, background stories and continuously updated key figures.