All the cocoa used in Made Fair Chocolate ice cream comes from  CONACADO.  This democratically run co-operative represents around 10,000 small-scale growers in the Dominican Republic, most of whom who farm less than three hectares. 

 

 

All the cocoa used in Made Fair Chocolate ice cream comes from The Confederacion Nacional de Cacaocultores Dominicanos (CONACADO).  This democratically run co-operative represents around 10,000 small-scale growers in the Dominican Republic, most of whom who farm less than three hectares.  CONACADO sells cacao beans directly for export, improving producer income and living conditions and offering technical help to improve the production quality of the cocoa.

Making a difference

The Dominican Republic is the second poorest country in the Caribbean after Haiti. Forty-two percent of its population live below the poverty line and 16 percent live in extreme poverty. Around 40,000 small-scale cocoa growers produce between 32,000 and 48,000 tonnes of cocoa a year, mainly for export.  The income of small-scale cocoa producers is unstable and unpredictable as it is tied to the volatile price of cocoa on the New York and London stock markets

CONACADO represents around a quarter of these small scale growers.  It provides a pre-finance credit system to local unions which helps them buy the cocoa from the farmer associations, and helps with transport and storage from farms to the CONACADO owned drying facilities.

CONACADO also provides its members with financial support, export assistance, rural infrastructure, health care, education and quality improvement.  This support can include anything from free medical assistance, interest free loans and access to credit, to scholarships and school materials for low income students.  Sales to the Fair Trade market have enabled CONACADO to set up a nursery that supplies low-cost plants to farmers so that they can grow most of their own food. 

A grower’s story

Mariano Manzuela is a 64-year-old cocoa farmer  and he and his wife have six sons and five daughters, four of them still in school.  He has run his small half-hectare farm for over 30 years, working from 6am to 3pm every day tending his cocoa trees and other crops. He is one of the poorest farmers in the community and has benefited from the Fairtrade premium in several ways.

His colleagues agreed to loan him funds to help extend and repair his house. His children have received secondary scholarships from the Fairtrade premium to pay for school expenses and exam fees. And premium funds are being used to build a new classroom at the primary school his youngest son attends. Mariano is proud that two of his children won university places, but one daughter had to stop because the transport costs were too high. For the future Mariano's biggest hope is that his children will be able to finish their education.