Understanding End-to-End Cocoa Traceability and the MultiTrace Platform

The new standard introduces innovative requirements that aim to make supply chains more equitable. These shared responsibility requirements are made up of two components: the Sustainability Differential (SD) and Sustainability Investments (SI). Please see the Cocoa SD SI guidance for more details.

MultiTrace will enable the recording of the full SD and SI. This will give farmers and companies more clarity and transparency on what investments are made. This includes not only monetary transfers, but also in-kind services provided by the supply chain actors.

MultiTrace also aims to provide more transparency on SD and SI paid down the supply chain, enabling the supply chain actors to take more responsibility for their share in the investments needed for more sustainable cocoa production. It will also provide them with more certainty that their investments are effective and appropriate.

We are introducing Origin Matching Mass Balance. Origin Matching Mass Balance applies to all three Rainforest Alliance programs: the new 2020 Program as well as previous Rainforest Alliance and UTZ programs. Being able to access and trade within all three programs in one platform makes it much easier for companies to origin match their transactions and provides more flexibility to spread out risks and matches across our different programs.

MultiTrace will also provide functionality that will make it easier to mix and sell volumes in compliance with origin matching requirements.

Lastly, reporting functionality will support companies in making sure they sell the right volumes for compliance.

The Rainforest Alliance allows four traceability levels: Origin Matching Mass Balance (MB), Segregated (SEG), Identity Preserved (IP), and Mixed IP. We are currently phasing out traditional mass balance. MultiTrace will allow companies to use the traceability level that best works for their operations and supply chain.

A traceability option in which it is possible to identify the Rainforest Alliance Certified ingredient or product back to a single farm or farm group. A volume that is traded as IP in MultiTrace will display the farm certificate holder information along the supply chain.

Segregated (SEG) means that the full product content is certified, although it can come from different certified sources/farms, including other countries of origin. Companies that do not wish to display producer information should downgrade from IP to Segregated either in the Conversion, Mix (blend/bulk), or Sell Transaction screens.

Mass balance (MB) is an administrative traceability level that allows a certificate holder to claim a product which is not certified as Rainforest Alliance Certified when the equivalent quantity was sourced as Rainforest Alliance Certified.

A certified product is from different certified sources/farms, but identity is preserved throughout the supply chain. A volume that is traded as Mixed IP in MultiTrace will display the farm certificate holder information along the supply chain.

Companies need to comply with our new traceability requirements in order to continue to use the Rainforest Alliance seal.

Companies need to ensure compliance with their relevant current standard (Rainforest Alliance and/or UTZ) and –from July 1, 2021– the new 2020 Certification Program, including traceability requirements (see section 2.1 and 2.2 of the Supply Chain Requirements). Please read here how to transition the new program.

The traceable supply chain in MultiTrace is extended from the current traceability scope in Marketplace and GIP:

• We provide traceability from cocoa bean to final chocolate product.
• Certain retailers are now also in the scope of certification as important supply chain stakeholders. Go to this page to see which retailers should get Rainforest Alliance Certified.

As of July 1, 2021, this extended scope applies to all three Rainforest Alliance programs: the new 2020 Program as well as previous Rainforest Alliance and UTZ programs. See here how to transition to the new program.

• Farm certificate holders are required to sell their volumes in MultiTrace in accordance with the appropriate standard.
• All certificate holders—farmers and companies—will need to log in and announce the sales, purchases, conversions, blends/mixes, manufacturing activities in the traceability platform within the timelines required by our new program. They are also required to indicate the end of the traceable supply chain by “redeeming” their cocoa products in MultiTrace.
• Companies must implement a robust system of spot checks verifying that a sample of incoming volumes matches with corresponding traceability documentation for products labeled with our seal or claimed (incl. off-pack) as Rainforest Alliance Certified.

Available volume balances from GIP and Marketplace will be migrated. Individual transaction history will not be migrated, but the original systems will be open for read-only access.

As part of the new 2020 Certification Program and the new standard (applicable to all users from July 1, 2021 onward)​

• Retail will be added to the supply chain certification scope​.
• First buyers must record Sustainability Differential and Sustainability Investments separately. This will include “agreed to be paid” and actually “paid”.
• The traceability scope will be extended to multi-ingredient products. Users will need to start converting to multi-ingredient products (chocolate) and buying/selling​ these products.

For MultiTrace users that have previously been using Marketplace (Rainforest Alliance program)

• It will become mandatory to choose the “Redeem” option to indicate the end of the traceable supply chain.
• Transaction Certificates will be submitted as transactions from stock.
• Companies will have to confirm transactions in the platform.
• Companies will be able to directly downgrade from one traceability level to another in the platform.

For MultiTrace users that have previously been using Good Inside Portal (UTZ program)

• “Trace” will become “Redeem”​.
• “Butter Full Premium” option will be discontinued and converted to “Cocoa butter”​.
• There will be a possibility to mix cocoa of different origins from cocoa liquor onward.

A transaction is the movement of volumes between two actors in the supply chain. That can be from producer to a buyer, or from a trader to a manufacturer or blender or packer. Each transaction needs to be announced and confirmed. There are many settings in MultiTrace, such as mandating & trusting which make that easier for the parties involved (e.g. there is no confirmation needed if the two parties of a trade “trust” each other in the system).

A stock position is a volume type, that a supply chain actor owns, and which is reflected in MultiTrace. Companies will be able to aggregate stock positions in the platform, so volumes with certain parameters will be combined.

Users will log in to MultiTrace and use different data points to perform an activity in the platform. Some of those data points that will be needed are the following:

• Volumes (e.g. either sold volume or amount used as an input of a conversion)
• Buyer names
• Reference numbers (e.g. invoice number)
• Activity dates (e.g. a sales date or date of conversion)
• Conversion rate

Every company will be able to perform these activities in MultiTrace. Companies with high numbers of transactions will be able to provide an Excel spreadsheet in a designated format for uploading to the platform. During the upload the system will be able to match the data being asked by MultiTrace with the data in the file provided by the company.

Please consult the Traceability User Guide Manual for further explanations on terms and the MultiTrace Traceability platform.

MultiTrace functionality enables users to convert pure cocoa products (such as beans, liquor, butter, powder) to multi-ingredient products where the pure cocoa ingredient is mixed to create (semi-) finished products such as chocolate.

MultiTrace further enables buying and selling of multi-ingredient products, until the final brand owner.

Annex Chapter 2: Traceability requires full traceability for multi-ingredient products in the traceability portal up until the brand owner. This means that for all multi-ingredient products sold to another Certificate Holder up to the brand owner level, a sales transaction must be entered in MultiTrace.

All companies must be fully compliant with multi-ingredient cocoa traceability requirements as of January 1, 2023.

To be fully compliant with the multi-ingredient requirements in Annex Chapter 2: Traceability, shipments of multi-ingredient cocoa products (e.g., B2B semi-finished chocolate, B2B use finished chocolate) taking place on or after January 1, 2023 require multi-ingredient transaction entries in MultiTrace. The different steps to create, maintain and trade multi-ingredient products are explained in our MultiTrace User Guidance for Cocoa Traceability.

This means that every multi-ingredient cocoa shipment needs to be entered in MultiTrace up until the brand owner. Volumes may only be redeemed once they reach the final brand owner (with the exception of retailers who can opt-in to traceability).

Yes, this includes UTZ cocoa volumes, which are now considered Rainforest Alliance volumes after the implementation of Mutual Recognition.

If the volumes have already been traced or redeemed prior to January 1, 2023, then these volumes do not require multi-ingredient traceability in MultiTrace. Users can continue to follow UTZ requirements and keep track of these volumes in a credit account. As the volumes are used during production, they can be removed from the credit account.

Please note that with the implementation of Full Mutual Recognition on January 31, 2022, UTZ volumes can no longer be identified as such in MultiTrace.

According to Annex Chapter 2 “For activities such as processing that result in a change of the certified volume (e.g. green to roasted coffee), the volume must be converted (in the platform) before it is redeemed or sold onward. For activities such as manufacturing that result in a different product (e.g. multi-ingredient product) but do not result in a change of the certified volume, if volumes are redeemed the SC CH is not required to perform the platform activity “manufacture” prior to redeeming.”

Please refer to Annex Chapter 2 for more information on whether you are the final brand owner. If you are a retailer please also refer to Sharing Responsibility Through the Entire Supply Chain: Retail and Foodservice Companies Are Now Included.

No. The product position only needs to be created once, and volumes can simply be added to that product position after that. You can find more information about creating different multi-ingredient stock positions in our Traceability User Manual under section 6, Multi-Ingredient reporting.