Merck KGaA Tests Cocoa Traceability on Hedera Ahead of EU Deadline

Merck KGaA and PwC Germany are piloting a system to track cocoa origin using Hedera's network. This comes as the EU deforestation regulation approaches its December 30, 2026 deadline for large operators.

The system uses Merck's M-Trust technology to verify product authenticity through scanning, which is then recorded on Hedera with a timestamp by The Hashgraph Group's TrackTrace platform.

Thomas Endress, Executive Director and Head of M-Trust at Merck, said this step verifies the product being scanned is genuine. Husen Kapasi, Enterprise Blockchain Lead at PwC Germany, noted that the system maintains 'a verifiable trail not only of the finished product, but also of its raw materials, including their quality and compliance history.'

This regulation requires operators to collect geolocation coordinates for all plots of land where the commodity was produced, as well as the date or time range of production. Merck's M-Trust technology does not produce these farm polygons.