Freetown · Kenema · Kailahun
Dayoub Trading (SL) Ltd buys at the farmgate, grades in Kenema and ships FOB Freetown — with the plot-level origin record European buyers now have to file for every consignment.
Who we are
We are an origin house, not a broker. Our people are in the growing districts — walking the collection centres in Kenema, weighing and moisture-testing beans as they come down from the farms, and putting our own name on the grade.
Sierra Leone grows some of West Africa’s most under-traded cocoa. Most of it is smallholder-farmed under natural forest shade, with yields of 300–400 kg per hectare and almost no chemical input. The quality is there. What the market has historically lacked from this origin is a counterparty who documents it properly, ships on schedule, and answers the phone after the vessel sails. That is the whole of our business.
Dayoub Trading (SL) Ltd is registered with the Sierra Leone Investment & Export Promotion Agency under Agribusiness & Agro Processing, and works out of Hangha Road in Kenema.
What we trade
Cocoa, coffee and rubber all come out of the same forest belt in the east of the country — which means one sourcing network, one grading discipline, and one set of origin records covering all three.
Primary line
Fermented and sun-dried Forastero-type beans from Kailahun and Kenema, bought through collection centres on moisture percentage and cut-test quality. Predominantly shade-grown on smallholdings under remnant forest canopy — the profile buyers associate with this origin is a deep, low-acid, classic West African cocoa.
Seasonal · December to March
Sierra Leonean Robusta from the Eastern Province, hand-picked and patio-dried in the villages where it is grown. Volumes here are small by world standards and the crop is genuinely under-exploited — which is precisely why it suits buyers looking for a differentiated West African Robusta rather than a commodity blend filler.
Industrial line
Field latex coagulum and processed sheet from smallholder Hevea plantings. Supplied as cup lump for buyers running their own processing, or as ribbed smoked sheet and technically specified block rubber against an agreed grade. Rubber sits under the same EU due-diligence rules as cocoa and coffee, and we document it the same way.
Traceability
From 30 December 2026, large and medium operators cannot place any of these three commodities on the EU market without a Due Diligence Statement. Micro and small operators follow on 30 June 2027. The obligation sits with the importer — but the evidence can only be created at origin.
Coordinates captured for the plots a lot was bought from, recorded at the point of purchase rather than reconstructed after the fact.
Lot identity held from collection centre through drying, grading and bagging, so a bag on the quay maps back to the farms behind it.
Sierra Leonean export licensing, phytosanitary certification and produce inspection paperwork assembled per shipment.
Origin records oriented to the regulation’s 31 December 2020 deforestation cut-off date, in the format your DDS filing needs.
EUDR deforestation cut-off. Land cleared after this date is out.
Window to build clean origin records before the crop that ships under the rules.
Large & medium operators must file a DDS for every consignment.
Micro & small operators follow.
Talk to us early about what your due-diligence system needs from origin, and we will build the collection around it rather than handing you a spreadsheet after the vessel has sailed.
How a lot moves
Buying directly from growers and cooperatives across Kailahun, Kenema and Kono — the districts that carry the great majority of the country’s cocoa and coffee.
Lots come into the Kenema collection network where trained officers test moisture, cut-test for fermentation and mould, and grade before payment.
Under-dried parcels are held and brought down to specification rather than blended away into a shipment.
Clean jute, sampled and sealed, with a retained sample against every lot number so any claim can be checked against what actually shipped.
Stuffing, inspection, phytosanitary and certificate of origin, and loading through Queen Elizabeth II Quay. CIF on request.
Reference
The standard we contract to. Tighter parameters can be agreed lot by lot — tell us what your intake spec is and we will quote against it.
| Parameter | Grade I | Grade II |
|---|---|---|
| Moisture content | 7.5% max | 7.5% max |
| Mouldy beans | 3% max | 4% max |
| Slaty beans | 3% max | 8% max |
| Other defects | 3% max | 6% max |
| Foreign matter | 1% max | 1% max |
| Fermentation | Fully fermented, sun-dried | |
| Packing | 62.5 kg jute bags, new or sound second-hand | |
| Container load | 200 bags · 12.5 MT per 20′ FCL | |
| Origin | Kailahun · Kenema · Kono, Sierra Leone | |
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Species | Robusta (Coffea canephora) |
| Process | Natural — hand-picked, patio sun-dried |
| Moisture content | 11–12.5% |
| Foreign matter | 0.5% max |
| Harvest window | December to March |
| Packing | 60 kg jute bags |
| Container load | 300 bags · 18 MT per 20′ FCL |
| Origin | Eastern Province, Sierra Leone |
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Source | Smallholder Hevea brasiliensis |
| Forms offered | Cup lump · ribbed smoked sheet · TSR block |
| Dry rubber content | Agreed per lot, tested on arrival |
| Contamination | Free of bark, sand and foreign matter |
| Packing | Baled and palletised, or bulk by agreement |
| Container load | Up to 20 MT per 20′ FCL |
| Regulatory | EUDR-scope commodity — origin records supplied |
Samples available on request against a signed enquiry. Pre-shipment inspection by SGS, Bureau Veritas or a surveyor of your nomination can be arranged at buyer’s instruction.
The company
Dayoub Trading (SL) Ltd is led by the Dayoub family, working out of the Kenema District — the centre of Sierra Leone’s cocoa and coffee country — with the company’s registered office in Cline Town, Freetown, close to the export quay.
That is deliberate. Commodity trading from this origin fails when the trader sits in a capital city office and buys from whoever turns up at the gate. Being in the district means seeing the crop before it is bagged, knowing which sections had a wet harvest, and being able to hold a lot back rather than ship a problem and argue about it later.
Enquiries
Volume, specification, destination port and shipment window are enough for us to come back with an indication. If you are buying into the EU, say so — it changes what we collect at the farm.