Social Responsibility and Transparent Prices to the Farmers

 

 

We, as a small family business, take our responsibilities within society seriously. We feel especially passionate about our impact on the environment and our small farmers, which are our origin and part of our DNA.

When you use our products, you can rest assured that the farmers were paid prices far above the market value, had access to technical and logistics assistance and received our support in their communities with emphasis on education. We take pride in helping small farming communities thrive. 

Our core values are our main drive and we hope you join us to make this world a more equal, healthy, and eco-friendly place, while promoting mutual support and collaboration with our fellow small businesses around the world.

 OUR SOCIAL COMMITMENT

 As our family's history clearly shows the importance of education, we are strong advocates to support this cause. We work in different fields to incorporate this concept, and our strategy is a direct, hands-on approach, as we are very inclusive in our community. We will keep working on making sure that our farming communities are growing and being sustainable. 

Our social and sustainable work involves, among others, these activities and contributions:

In the farms:

• -Training for sustainable and eco-friendly farming practices.

• -Education in the administration of small farms.

• -Working together and using models of international organizations to develop an inclusive business model with the farmers.

• -Yearly food drives at the most remote coops in areas affected by flooding or any other hardships.

• -Currently in the process of implementing college scholarships for farmer kids to go study in the city, Guayaquil, starting in 2020. However, due to the Covid19 situation, this will most likely be delayed to 2024. We will select two students based on academic achievement and social involvement from the farm towns and provide a full scholarship for any four to a six-year career in any of the major universities in Guayaquil.

• -Our own seedlings and stems farm to breed the best cacao varieties and sell them to the farmers at no profit to improve their yields and higher prices to fine aroma cacao bean varieties.

• -We pay premium prices for cacao beans to small and medium farmers, with markups of nearly 10% more than the international market.

• -Our distribution operation is open to any farmer, and we advise them in food safety standards and regulations to bring their products to the markets. This does not only include cacao, but also small farmers that produce vanilla beans, plantain, macambo, lucuma, teas, freeze dried tropical fruits and other spices in the region.

 

In the factory:

• -Continuous professional training for personnel.  

• -A profit-sharing system with our workers after each fiscal year.

• - follow SEDEX standards to monitor fair labor practices in the farms and in the processing facility).

• -Our factory employees have substantially higher wages than the industry in Ecuador, always promoting continuous education at any level through seminars and courses.

• -We have a close relationship in the working-class town outside of Guayaquil, where the factory is located, and we continuously give donations to the community center and church, who runs a childcare center, fire department, or other donations as needed.

From decades our family businesses contributed to farmers, factory workers and the local

community in Ecuador, as shown in the following chart for the most recent events. This includes our latest Covid19 relief efforts to Ecuador, one of the most affected regions in Latin America:

 

Transparent Prices - Prices paid to the farmers (NOT the exporting company!).

CocoaSupply will show you the actual invoices if you request them. Please note we do not publish these here because of privacy concerns as these include ID and phone numbers.

When you purchase a product from us, we will give you the backward traceability so you can
see:
● Net Price of the Cocoa Bought from the Farmer
● Farmer Name, Address, Tax ID (or Identity number), and invoice number, which is an official document approved by the government and traceable.
● The bank payment made to that farmer
● Taxes retained (1% or 2% mandatory by the Ecuadorian Government on any
Transaction, depending on the size of the taxpayer -seller, in this case, the farmer), which is a government issued receipt and traceable.

Please note that we are committed to paying prices ABOVE the minimum imposed by Fair
Trade. Please note that the Fair Trade prices are supposed to be FOB (which includes many
costs such as transportation to the port, inspection, phytosanitary, customs fees, etc.), and our
prices are higher even as they are farmgate prices or delivered to the factory in Ecuador
(not that far away from most farms).
Also, please note THAT WE DO NOT SHARE THIS INFORMATION ONLINE, AND WE ASK
YOU NOT TO DO THIS. Personal and Tax IDs and other transaction data are very sensitive information.