We have elaborated a document which summarizes our ideas about fairtrade and fair trade relationships which you can download here
(Fair equitable transparent Bouga label).
At the moment this document is available only in french.
For us, fairtrade represents a certain way of life, a society project that aims at equality for all participants of the marketing chain. This means also that fairtrade should not only pay some more money to the producers in “the south” but rather promote respectful trade relations all along the chain as well as direct contacts, fair remuneration and transparency.
To demonstrate this transparency you can download a document with detailed information on the commercialisation chain with “selva dorada” (available only in french) download here; focussing mainly on financial aspects. We will try to elaborate similar documents for all our marketing chains and publish them here.
Here is a short summary of the selva dorada commercialisation chain:
Summary : Cocoa – chain of commercialization – Santiago de Mendez, Ecuador
After the final breakup of the APPOS in 2012 and after some in depth discussions with some of the former APPOS members, in particular the former president Oliva Ortiz and Manuel Zavala, we decided together to try to build up a new group of producers. To better value the efforts in organic production and our approach to fair-trade we decided to have these certified by ECOCERT.
2013 we started this new era of cooperation with the certification of one finca (the finca of Manuel Zavala in Chupianza); however all persons involved agree on the aim to extend this cooperation to a larger group to be formed.
Together we determined the production costs for the cocoa which amounted to 1.55 US$ per kilogram for the 2013 harvest. The conditions of our cooperation were fixed in a frame contract; the minimum price was fixed at 3,- US$ per kilogram, almost the double of the actual production costs.
For each sale additionally a contract of purchase is elaborated to determine the concrete conditions for each commercial relation.
In addition to the price for the cocoa, we do as well contribute to a development fond with at least 5% of each sale volume. In 2013 we paid 200 US$ directly into the fond as well as the costs for the organic certification of 850 US$.
The development fond is supposed to help implement the aims of the development plan. This development plan was set up by Manuel Zavala together with Bouga CacaO and consists of the following two main lines:
- Establishment of a group of producers with organic certification
- Promotion of transformation of the raw material on site
Our contribution to these goals consists not only in the financial input to the development fond; we support all efforts as well by providing necessary information and advising where needed.
We do strongly believe that we -and thus as well the consumers of our chocolate- contribute with this form of cooperation to sustainable local development.
The production of finished goods based on their cocoa for the local market has been also a priority for a long time for Oliva and Manuel. This project is quite successfull to the extent that more and more cocoa from theit fincas are used for these products. Even though there is still some cocoa left for the couverture production for Bouga CacaO, this might change in the future. However, the locally added value has always been the main objective of Bouga CacaO and thus we are very pleased with this success.
Bouga CacaO is a guaranteed member of the WFTO – view and download our certificate on our certification page.
Bouga CacaO is also a member of Minga – association to promote a more equitable economy
sorry all the links to Minga are only available in french…
En suivant le lien suivant vous trouverez plus d’informations sur le positionnement de Minga.