From Gender Equity to Carbon Tracking: How KOLTIVA Supports Kudeungo Sugata and TRANSFORM (Unilever, FCDO and EY) Is Transforming Cocoa in Aceh

Editor’s Note

This article marks the first in our TRANSFORM: BESTARI Challenge impact series. TRANSFORM is an impact accelerator led by Unilever, the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and EY, supporting visionary enterprises across Africa and Asia. In this feature, we spotlight PT Kudeungoe Sugata, a local cocoa businesses in Aceh Indonesia, that is pioneering regenerative, inclusive, and climate-smart cocoa production through the TRANSFORM: BESTARI grant. As the implementation partner, we support Sugata in designing and executing data-driven approaches, gender inclusion, and carbon monitoring can transform smallholder cocoa production into a model of regenerative, inclusive agriculture. Stay tuned for the next features in this series. 

Executive Summary:

• PT Kudeungoe Sugata secured a grant under the TRANSFORM: BESTARI Challenge, a joint initiative led by Unilever, the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and EY to scale inclusive, climate-smart business models.

• As the implementation partner, KOLTIVA leads the delivery of five integrated workstreams—gender equity, agroforestry demo plots, regenerative agriculture, waste reduction, and greenhouse gas tracking.

• The program aims to reach 500 cocoa-farming households in Aceh by the end of 2025, building resilient, data-driven, and inclusive supply chains from the ground up.

In the heart of Southeast Asia’s last great rainforest, cocoa farmers in Aceh are at a crossroads. With climate pressures mounting, an initiative led by Sugata and KOLTIVA, supported by Unilever, the UK Government’s FCDO, and EY, through TRANSFORM, is pioneering regenerative agriculture and inclusive growth. Here’s how it began.

Aceh’s Cocoa Crossroads: A Forest, a Community, and a Future at Stake

Nestled within Aceh’s eastern flank of the 2.6 million-ha Leuser Ecosystem, one of the world’s last intact tropical rainforests and the only place where Sumatran tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans still cohabit, the province’s sprawling cocoa belt forms a lifeline for local communities. With more than 101,000 ha of cocoa and an annual output of 41,000 tons, Aceh ranks as Indonesia’s fourth-largest cocoa producer (Invest in Aceh, 2023). 

This vast landscape, home to nine rivers, three lakes, and 185,000 ha of peatlands storing 1.6 billion tons of carbon, supplies clean water to four million people, services valued at over US $600 million a year. Yet aging trees, pests, erratic weather, and ongoing deforestation as monocultures replace rainforest cover threaten both livelihoods and the watershed, which has already lost 20 percent of its lowland forests in the past five years (Global Conservation, 2023).

In response, global policy drivers, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and corporate zero deforestation pledges, are steering cocoa into a new era. Regenerative cocoa, planted under a biodiverse canopy and managed via agroforestry, nutrient recycling, and digital traceability, represents more than a conservation strategy: it’s a pathway to long-term profitability and compliance. Within this transition, empowering cocoa-farming households through a participatory framework has emerged as a critical lever, supporting more inclusive, resilient, and responsible cocoa production.

In 2024, TRANSFORM launched the BESTARI Challenge, inviting Indonesian enterprises to pilot solutions advancing the SDGs and offering grants of up to £300,000. The unique accelerator blends this funding with tailored business support to scale solutions that tackle complex development challenges. In October 2024, at Jakarta’s SDG Festival, our client, PT Kudeungoe Sugata, a local bean-to-bar pioneer, was named one of three winners, securing funding to pilot regenerative cocoa in Southeast Aceh. Since 2018, Sugata has championed traceable, high-quality production; its selection reflects a strategy of backing agile SMEs with strong community ties and scalable potential.

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Aceh’s Cocoa Crossroads: A Forest, a Community, and a Future at Stake

3. Global Mandates, Local Challenges: Redefining Cocoa with Regenerative Agriculture

4. Five Workstreams Transforming Cocoa from the Ground Up

   1. Empowering Women through GALS: Gender Equity as the Heart of Regeneration

   2. Agroforestry Demo Plots: Living Classrooms for Climate-Smart Farming

   3. Regenerative Agriculture: Restoring Soils, Biodiversity, and Farm Resilience

   4. Cocoa Waste Innovation: Turning Farm Byproducts into Circular Solutions

   5. Tracking Carbon at the Source: GHG Monitoring for Measurable Climate Action

5. Blueprint for Impact Transformation: The 18-Month Roadmap to Regenerative Cocoa

Five Workstreams Transforming Cocoa from the Ground Up

To catalyze the initiative, Sugata partnered with technical and sustainability experts KOLTIVA as its implementation partner to design a holistic, data-driven approach to regenerative cocoa production. With a mandate to deliver digital traceability, farm level training, and live data-driven decision making, KOLTIVA brings the systems and skills needed to make regenerative agriculture objectives measurable, scalable, and replicable.

This initiatives integrates five workstreams to weave sustainability into every pod, every plot, and every producer’s decision. It create sustainable impact across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Beyond improving yields; it also strengthening producer capacity, enhancing natural resources, and reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint. The five workstreams are outlined below:

• Empowering Women through GALS: Gender Equity as the Heart of Regeneration

  GALS (Gender Action Learning System) plays a vital role in promoting gender equality and empowering women in household and farm decision-making. Through participatory methods, female producers are supported to become change agents within their communities.

  
  

• Agroforestry Demo Plots: Living Classrooms for Climate-Smart Farming

  Demo Plots Management serves as hands-on learning spaces where producers can adopt agroforestry practices. These plots demonstrate ideal plant strata within cocoa farms and guide producers in selecting compatible cocoa clones to avoid genetic incompatibility, which can lead to drastic yield drops after year eight, right when cocoa trees should be at peak productivity, while providing alternative incomes from intercropping.

• Regenerative Agriculture: Restoring Soils, Biodiversity, and Farm Resilience

  Regenerative Agriculture and Agroforestry emphasize farming practices that restore soil health and ecosystems, such as intercropping, cover cropping, and water conservation. The goal is to build a farming system that is both productive and environmentally resilient through training and implementation.

• Cocoa Waste Innovation: Turning Farm Byproducts into Circular Solutions

  Cocoa Waste Management introduces innovation in waste management, particularly the use of cocoa pod husks. If left untreated, these husks become major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and breeding grounds for pests and diseases. However, cocoa pod husks are rich in nutrients like potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and organic matter. Through composting, they can replace a portion of chemical fertilizer use, increasing nutrient availability, improving soil structure and microbial activity.

• Tracking Carbon at the Source: GHG Monitoring for Measurable Climate Action

  GHG Monitoring is a critical component for measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cocoa farming. Emissions stem from pod husks, fallen leaves, and excessive use of chemical inputs. By implementing interventions such as composting and agroforestry, the program has shown measurable reductions in GHG emissions from the beginning to the end of the project.

Global Mandates, Local Challenges: Redefining Cocoa with Regenerative Agriculture

Across the cocoa supply chain, expectations are evolving rapidly. Buyers, financiers, and consumers alike are placing increasing value on transparency, environmental responsibility, and inclusive business models. Yet while global sustainability ambitions rise, local producers face mounting structural challenges that threaten their ability to keep pace.

• Rising Compliance Pressures with Limited Local Readiness

  Major cocoa buyers and consumer goods companies are linking procurement decisions to traceability, zero-deforestation sourcing, child-labour-free and climate-smart practices; setting a new bar for producers worldwide.

• Sustainability Frameworks Without Ground-Level Capacity

  The UN SDGs and emerging Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) benchmarks are pushing enterprises to align operations with social equity, biodiversity protection, and carbon reduction.

• Smallholder Exclusion Risks from Data and Resource Gaps

  Many Indonesian cocoa producers face structural barriers to meeting these expectations, including limited access to training, digital tools, and accurate farm records; raising concerns about exclusion from high-value markets if support systems are not in place.

• Fragmented and Opaque Supply Chains

  With multiple intermediaries and inconsistent data flow, the cocoa supply chain remains largely untraceable, leaving companies vulnerable to non-compliance risks and farmers disconnected from market transparency.

• Economic Vulnerability and Declining Productivity

  Price volatility, aging trees, limited access to quality inputs, and low bargaining power continue to suppress farmer incomes, reducing the incentive for sustainable investment.

• Escalating Climate and Environmental Threats

  Irregular rainfall, soil degradation, and pest outbreaks are further threatening yields and farmer livelihoods, emphasizing the need for resilient, adaptive production systems.

  
  

In Southeast Aceh, these forces converge: a global compliance imperative meets one of Asia’s richest biodiversity hotspots and a vital cocoa economy. Without intervention, renewed cocoa expansion threatens further encroachment into forest margins; with the right systems, Aceh can integrate into high-value, sustainable markets while safeguarding its irreplaceable ecosystems

With these pressures and opportunities converging in Southeast Aceh, TRANSFORM BESTARI takes shape as a holistic response anchored in five mutually reinforcing workstreams.

Partner	Role & Contribution
PT Kudeungoe Sugata	Grantee and local lead Mobilizes 21 villages, coordinates Producer Engagement (PE) team, and integrates demo-plot insights into bean-to-bar operations.
KOLTIVA	Implementation partner Driving digital traceability, inclusive farmer engagement, and regenerative agriculture training in all five workstreams.
TRANSFORM (Led by Unilever, UK FCDO & EY)	Grant funding and business support Provides grant funding combined with bespoke technical assistance and coaching to strengthen operational and financial capabilities, as well as supporting with market access for compliant cocoa.

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Blueprint for Impact Transformation: The 18-Month Roadmap to Regenerative Cocoa

Building on shared sustainability goals, Sugata, all partners with KOLTIVA as its implementation partner is advancing a bold 18-month roadmap to redefine smallholder cocoa production in Aceh.

The initiative brings together five measurable workstreams designed to drive long-term change across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Among its key targets:

• Establishing 10 regenerative agroforestry demo plots, equipped with GHG emissions measurement system, and on-site training.

• Coaching 500 producers coached in GALS, with at least 50% women’s participation target.

• 150 producers trained on demo-plot management, covering Good Agricultural Practices, intercropping with other crops such as fruit crops, timber crops, etc for income diversification, and circular economy.

• Piloting five cocoa-waste recycling units using biochar and composting technologies, supported by cost–benefit analysis to assess scalability.

• A GHG monitoring established across all plots using Cool Farm Tool (CFT) survey tools, biomass measurements, and remote-sensing integration.

  
  

This ambitious roadmap reflects Sugata’s commitment to driving systemic change in the cocoa sector, prioritizing regenerative practices, gender inclusion, climate-smart innovations, and income diversification for smallholder producers. These goals not only align with global sustainability standards but also showcase the kind of forward-thinking approach that caught the attention of funding partners.

On awarding Sugata with the funding, Jessica Pauline, Country Lead Finance & Business Development Unilever Indonesia, stated,

“Sugata demonstrates strong commitment to advancing positive social and environmental change in the agricultural sector. Impact enterprises like Sugata have some of the most innovative solutions to the global challenges we face. Beyond grant funding, we are also leveraging the power of cross-sector collaboration, drawing on our networks and know-how to help the enterprise scale its impact. We look forward to seeing their progress in the months to come.”

As the grant was finalized in late 2024, KOLTIVA and Sugata’s PE team ramped up preparations, co-designing curricula, securing demo-plot leases, and training master trainers. By June 2025, 21 villages had completed initial GALS and DCA modules, setting the stage for full rollout in the coming months.

Yet no story of transformation is complete without acknowledging hurdles. Unpredictable rains delayed kiln runs and agroforestry plantings; cultural norms in Marpung Gabungan still limit some women’s engagement; and varied digital literacy among producers calls for simplified interfaces and extra field support.

“We want every cocoa producer to see how inclusion, innovation, and data can transform their farms,” explains Ferry Samosir, Sugata Program Lead.

Looking ahead, the focus turns to:

1. Deepening impact: Deliver the final GALS modules from June to August, expand demo-plot trainings to neighboring villages, and close data gaps in yield tracking and gender leadership metrics.

2. Scaling insights: Finalize the Baseline-Postline report by Q4 2025, codify lessons into the “Regenerative Cocoa Roadmap,” and share with policymakers, cooperatives, and buyers.

3. Sustaining momentum: Forge links to voluntary carbon markets, refine cocoa-waste value chains, and enlist local champions as peer-trainers, ensuring Aceh’s regenerative revolution outlives the grant window.

   
   

While challenges remain, the progress so far shows that sustainable cocoa production can go hand in hand with improved livelihoods and environmental stewardship. With continued collaboration, steady learning, and the right tools, the TRANSFORM BESTARI program is helping lay the groundwork for a more resilient and inclusive cocoa sector in Aceh.

Stay tuned as we continue to unpack the five workstreams driving Sugata’s project with TRANSFORM. In the upcoming articles, we’ll dive deeper into how gender equity through GALS, regenerative agriculture, waste reduction, and agri-carbon are reshaping cocoa farming into a more inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient sector. If you’re curious about our approach and want to explore how these solutions can support your business, talk to our experts today.

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Author: Daniel Agus Prasetyo, Head of Public Relations & Corporate Communications

Co-author: Andre Dani Mawardhi, Sr Manager Agriculture & Environment

Contributors:

• Ferry Samosir, Impact Program Manager - Multi Crops

• Amarilis Setyanti, Agronomy Lead

• Tika Pratiwi, Agronomy Officer

Daniel Agus Prasetyo brings over a decade of cross-industry experience in corporate communications, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. At KOLTIVA, he contributes to advancing initiatives that connect business growth with social and environmental impact. He is passionate about fostering collaboration and empowering communities, believing that meaningful progress happens when communication bridges purpose and people.

Andre Mawardhi  is the Senior Manager of Agriculture & Environment at KOLTIVA, where he leads sustainable agriculture strategies and environmental compliance across global supply chains. With over a decade of experience in agri-environmental systems, Andre specializes in integrating climate-smart practices, traceability frameworks, and regenerative farming into multi-stakeholder ecosystems. His work bridges scientific insight with on-the-ground impact, ensuring smallholder inclusion and compliance with emerging regulations like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Passionate about transforming food systems from the ground up, Andre plays a key role in shaping data-driven, sustainable sourcing solutions that benefit both producers and the planet.