Bouga Cacao, this is not only the story of a brand of chocolate! It’s also the story of people who dreamed and struggled to create a truly fair concept. Based on mutual trust, it is the will to make together a world a little more just and “last, but not least”: for the passion of a cocoa of excellence.

At the origin of Bouga Cacao there are meetings and a strong desire for collaboration:
The founders of the chocolate factory in France are Ulrike (Ulli) Bongartz and Alex Gareiss. Their chocolate processing work began in 2012 in their house with a workshop and an office in Ariège.

Some partners in Ecuador, the closest to the start:
The team of the Hacienda “Bosque de Oro” Oliva Ortiz and Manuel Zavala, cocoa producers and owners of two family farms – the “fincas”- in the Amazon of Morona Santiago.The community of Tesoro Escondido.
The company Tulicorp in Guayaquil: PME Chocolateria fina.
Also an collaboration with Ecuadorian Ngos, students from French and German schools of agriculture…

Bouga Cacao is also a great meeting story, thanks to the advice, support and encouragement of many people they have encountered on their way in recent years.

Initially, Bouga Cacao was created as a sole proprietorship without an employee. Ulrike is mainly in charge of production and communication with Ecuador, while Alex is in charge of marketing, customer relations, administrative tasks and accounting.

Bouga Cacao products are the result of a direct partnership between Bouga and its partners in Ecuador.

Our partners grow and harvest the cocoa, we develop the recipes together and then the cocoa is processed on-site in Ecuador to the finished or semi-processed product. In Ariège, in our small processing workshop we manufacture the finished products based on chocolate blanket, beans and cocoa paste. These varied products are then marketed locally, but also in Paris, Germany, England and Switzerland.

The Bouga Cacao project supports small producers’ initiatives by encouraging the processing of finished products on site. Most of the fair products of the industrialized countries contribute little to the sustainable development of the “poor” countries. Fostering the transformation of the raw material in the country of origin stimulates the local economy by creating new sources of income.

In recent years, things have evolved for Bouga Cacao. There are more and more partners in Ecuador and the individual company has become an LLC managed by Alex.

Points of sale are increasingly numerous in the Occitanie region, but also in the Île-de-France, Grand Nord and Est region thanks to a collaboration since the end of 2019 with Pierre-Louis, a multi-card commercial, particularly attentive to the values of its products…

Since spring 2020, Sandrine has joined the team. In order to develop and publicize our beautiful project, she has set up a new website and online store, which will allow you to discover our values and our products directly from your home.