- Dimitra has an AI- and IoT-based app for farmers and cooperatives to track the conditions of the crop that will reach consumers as chocolate
- The solution not only tracks how the crops are growing, and adjustments needed to improve yield, but also documents that no deforestation was involved, helping them meet EU legislation requirements and earn carbon credits
The cocoa industry faces both challenges and opportunities that are putting pressure on many farmers. The price of chocolate has been on the rise, making it a strikingly profitable crop for existing and new farmers. However, many new farmers have little knowledge about the cocoa growing business.
Additionally, climate change has meant new pressures around adjusting to the weather that may strain—extreme heat, droughts and heavy storms among the issues farmers are attempting to navigate.
Lastly, legislation in Europe will soon require that farmers show that their crops did not require deforestation. They may be able to access carbon credits if they can prove the product didn’t excessively impact the health of the area it was grown in.
To address this issues, global farming technology company Dimitra is offering AI-driven apps and IoT-based sensors that transmit data via Bluetooth, linked with geospatial data, weather, and farming productivity data to help farmers get the most from their crops, explained Jon Trask, CEO of Dimitra.
Automating Quality and Sales Data
The tech firm built a connected farming app several years ago. As the cocoa industry grows and diversifies, thousands of growers—and numerous cooperatives they belong to —are leveraging the system to help cocoa farmers access information, and prove their sustainable growing methods.
Consider the manual method of selling, inspecting and buying cocoa beans for the chocolate industry. In the process used for centuries, a farmer carries sacks full of cocoa pods to a buying station. At that site, one representative pod is removed from each bag, opened and the contents analyzed for moisture level by the inspector.
They write down the results and offer a price based on that measured quality. Higher moisture usually means a higher price for the bag of product. The farmer then has to typically accept that offer.
With the Dimitra solution, however, they may already have a digitally-rated value of the product based on the information gathered during the growing process. They show that value to the buyer and an agreement is reached.
Farming in a More Volatile Environment
Legislation that is impacting farmers worldwide includes the EU’s anti-deforestation law that goes live in January 2026. It requires any product sold in Europe must originate from sustainable farming practices.
At the COP26 conference, about 100 nations have signed an agreement to eradicate or reverse deforestation by 2030 through their import practices. One of the crops that frequently causes deforestation is cocoa, along with soybeans, coffee, rubber and cotton. Those key crops represent more than 50 percent of the world’s agricultural deforestation.
Climate change has an impact on farming success, since cocoa is very moisture reliant —the higher the moisture content, the greater the value of cocoa. Additionally, diseases such as black pod disease are prevalent in cocoa crops.
With new farmers, Dimitra is stepping in to help the complex demands of cocoa farming for this cohort. “New farmers don’t always know how to meet the quality requirements of the end consumer,” Trask said.
Following the App
Users first use the app to register in the system and map out their growing area. That data is uploaded via GPS information as they walk the perimeters and compared against mapping software satellite images from two years before.
From that point forward, the users can be guided with recommendations as they go about growing their product. The system provides daily pop ups, such as watching for a specific pest based on the growing cycle or weather. If farmers find that pest, they are provided with tips to eradicate it.
With IoT sensors, Dimitra can provide soil testing so that users can view the measurements and receive recommendations of watering and treating of the soil. The probes measure soil conditions and forward that data to a user with a smartphone within Bluetooth range.
Users can take a picture of a fruit or a tree or a leaf to use Dimitra’s AI-based system that evaluates the growth of that plant, estimate the health of the plant and make recommendations for how they can augment their soil.
Planting Guidance
The system can guide farmers through processes of hybridizing their crops to boost plant health. Planting cocoa trees and banana trees with proper space between them, can limit the spread of disease or pests. The app continually applies satellite imagery from a farmer’s site (quarterly) to ensure that no deforestation is happening.
Another feature is connecting farmers to carbon credits by assessing the carbon used on a farm and any practices like planting trees using leaf cover that will enhance the soil organic carbon. In the past, may farmers have not been able to access carbon credits.
“It costs a lot to apply for carbon credits so we’ve come up with a way to allow our customers to apply for carbon credits en mass with millions of farms,” Trask said. When used with the IoT sensors, he added, “we measure soil moisture we measure nutrients in the soil, [nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium] NPK are all relevant to cocoa.”
Providing Traceability and Accountability in Brazil
In Brazil, cocoa-based cooperative Coopercabruca is still learning the benefits they can gain from the app to aid in data capture from the fields.
“We decided to sign a contract with Dimitra in May 2024. As Coopercabruca is also focused on the foreign market, we realized that demand from abroad required traceability of our product. And it was an alternative that came in very handy when faced with our needs,” said Orlantildes Pereira, chairman of the cooperative.
The co-op has registered many of its properties in the app; however, some producers do not have the Rural Environmental Registry which aids with the process of georeferencing the location and deforestation conditions of their land, Pereira said.
Their growers use the app for more than just mapping out the conditions of their site. “We realized that the platform gives us other advantages in terms of managing the property itself. The app enables them to record and track the property’s economic data,” he said, adding co-op members are still exploring the benefits.
Helping Manage Numerous Properties
“Our producers have difficulties when it comes to managing their properties, being able to record fertilizer data, payment data for other expenses, even for labor and so on. So this is an issue that will certainly help us a lot,” said Pereira. The app enables farmers to input and store such data in the cloud.
Members are not yet using IoT sensors for soil conditions, but that may change going forward.
“We’re still at the beginning, we haven’t used IoT yet, we don’t have sensors installed in the fields, but it’s a process that’s ongoing,” said Pereira. “Certainly, some of the producers will initially want it. But the fact is that today we don’t have … sensors installed on our properties.”
Data Collecting Platform
Agronomist is another co-op in Brazil that is using the solution, said the co-op’s spokesperson Venâncio de Araújo Leal. Access to the software began in November 2024.
“Dimitra has already proved to be an important platform for collecting data from the cocoa plots or blocks on the properties, making it possible to quickly and efficiently have tabulated data to evaluate the results that will help in making production decisions,” said de Araújo Leal.
Initially, co-op members are using Dimitra to register the areas on which they grow their cocoa. The main source of data is the mapping of the geo-processed areas for recommendations. The app can aid with surveying costs and facilitating end-to-end tracking.
“It’s a very important tool for the new cocoa farming,” said Leal.
Aiding with Selling
A third cooperative in Southeast Asia is using the app to track soil pH levels important for its farmers’ cocoa cultivation. The ideal range lies between 6 and 7; values outside this range, whether overly acidic (pH < 6) or alkaline (pH > 7), affect the quality of the product.
“Recent weather patterns in Jembrana, Bali, have been characterized by periods of intense rainfall and prolonged drought. This has led to higher levels of acidity in the soil, prompting cocoa farmers to seek immediate and effective solutions,” said one co-op official.
Some new policies focus on phyto-sanitary tracking (the presence of disease or pests in products that cross borders). By applying data from the Dimitra app to a specific batch of product moving through the supply chain, (on a printed certificate) the coop and farmer can provide a level of accountability.
Ultimately, the price of cocoa depends on the moisture levels so Dimitra is intended to put price assessments back in the hands of the farmer. “Farmers generally are stewards of the earth and they’re excited to solve some of these problems they suffer with carbon problems and global warming,” said Trask.