Bouga Cacao is an artisanal and fair trade chocolate factory. We offer original and varied chocolate creations: its organic and fair trade chocolate bars, its loose chocolate, but also products such as raw beans, cocoa butter as well as non-fat chocolate to prepare your hot chocolates or incorporate it into your pastries. Our sales places are mainly organic stores (map on our website), the online shop and the Foix market (Ariège) on Friday morning…
What is important in our approach is the commercial relationship with our suppliers and partners in Ecuador. People who grow cocoa often lead precarious lives. But it is they who are the basis of the quality of our chocolate. We work directly with our producers, avoiding intermediaries, so we can certify that the remuneration for cocoa is paid to them.
Through this approach, we support sustainable development in Ecuador, with the transformation of beans being done on the spot, the majority of the surplus value thus generated allows the creation of skilled jobs in the country.
The team of Bouga Cacao, Alex Gareiss (founder and manager of the company), Ulrike Bongartz (founder and co-partner) and Sandrine Pierson (collaborator for the website and the online shop).
Bouga CacaO, the of an organic artisanal chocolate combining fair trade, sustainable development between Ecuador and the Pyrenées, the actors and the steps from cocoa to chocolate …
An organic and fair trade chocolate craft project
Bouga Cacao’s project is the result of a desire for collaboration between cocoa producers in Ecuador and an Ariège company created in 2006 by Alex and Ulrike. Bouga Cacao manufactures a range of organic dark chocolate bars with 75%, 85% or 100% cocoa, with spices and other ingredients from organic farming. It is a artisanal chocolate, made in a small workshop installed in the town of Foix in Ariège. The philosophy of this project is based on fair trade, with a close link with producers in Ecuador. The purchase of chocolate is based on an economic model that respects the fair remuneration of families that grow cocoa by buying production at a fair price.It is also a partnership that values and supports the respect of the environment of cocoa crops that are located within a biodiversity hotspots of South America.
Cocoa producers in Ecuador
Cocoa producers are committed to a process of preserving the ecosystem that supports their culture. The cocoa thus harvested comes from organic farming. It is also of high quality which gives unique flavors and aromas to chocolate. In order to limit intermediaries and promote fair trade, Bouga Cacao, the producers and the processing site in Salinas de Guaranda are in direct and regular link in the manufacturing scheme. Together they work on the recipes and exchange regularly around their common project.
Cocoa processing to cover chocolate in Ecuador
.Once the pods are harvested and the beans are ready for processing, the factory of the community chocolate factory in Salinas de Guaranda (Salinerito) is entrusted with the work of making the chocolate cover. This last step is also accomplished in the country of origin of the cocoa, Ecuador thus remains beneficiary of the surplus-value generated by the production. Through this process, it is a true sustainable development approach that is guaranteed at every stage of the manufacture of Bouga Cacao chocolate. This chocolate cover will then be used to make chocolate bars in France, at the foot of the Pyrenees.
The reseller partners
This whole project cannot be complete without the commercial partnerships that have been set up in organic stores, Biocoop or grocery stores , the main retailers of Bouga Cacao chocolate. Interested in the project and the quality of our products, the shops offering our Bouga Cacao range are only growing from year to year in the South-West, but also in the North, East and Île-de-France. Points of sale in Germany, Belgium and other European countries are also supplied. Finally, you can find all our products in the online shop of Bouga Cacao and participate in this beautiful fair trade project while savoring a quality organic chocolate and vegan.