A simple yet robust information management system, that combines comprehensive and accurate information on the origins, availability and characteristics of individual accessions, will be a key component in the establishment, management and utilisation of the large ‘virtual global cacao collection’ that CacaoNet aims to create. Information on cacao genetic resources is currently held in various institutional, national and international data management systems.

	ICGD (University of Reading/Euronext.liffe International Cocoa Germplasm Database). Contains information supplied directly by research institutes and from publications, available via the internet or on CD-ROM
	TropGENE DB Contains genetic and genomic  data (molecular markers, QTLs, genetics maps...) on Cacao.
	CocoaGenDB  Developed and maintained at CIRAD (in partnership with ICGD and USDA), combines the genomic data on cacao held in CIRAD’s TropGENE database with information from the ICGD.
	GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network); developed and maintained by USDA. An automated data retrieval system for the collection and dissemination of germplasm information, including the cacao accessions which have passed through the USDA quarantine system.

Progress is being made in developing standard methods for naming accessions, and characterising and evaluating cacao germplasm, but these have not yet been universally adopted and much of the data supplied to the international databases must still go through a “standardisation process” to optimise compatibility between the various datasets. It is essential that the database systems have an effective means to tackle accession mislabelling. Several genebanks and quarantine collections are currently confirming the identity of their accessions using genetic fingerprinting (microsatellite profiling) techniques. As accession identities are confirmed, and synonymies uncovered, the databases must be updated so that the characterisation and evaluation data are associated with the correct entries. Strategies to prevent further mislabelling are a pre-requisite for efficient handling of cacao GR and associated information in the future.