El Ceibo Cooperative - Cocoa Producer
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"Thanks to Fair Trade, we are able to sell our cocoa at a better, more stable price. These conditions benefit the member families of El Ceibo…By buying our cacao, you are joining us in solidarity, and you are sustaining us and driving a fair price for cacao farmers. You are encouraging the construction of a more just and sustainable world for all, producers and consumers alike."
--- Felipe Cancari Capcha
El Ceibo is named after the deep-rooted and majestic tree of the Andean rainforest that grows steadily and seems to never die. In the 1960s, the official Bolivian government cooperative, in which membership was compulsory, went bankrupt. Due to the difficulties of transporting their cocoa to La Paz and their lack of knowledge of market prices, farmers were forced to sell to local intermediaries. Farmers in the Alto Beni region of northeastern Bolivia formed small cocoa farmer cooperatives in the early 1970s. 37 of these co-ops then united to form the stronger union of El Ceibo in 1977. El Ceibo is deeply committed to protecting the native Andean rainforest and became the first certified organic cocoa cooperative in the world in 1988. Utilizing a tiered cultivation system, El Ceibo is working to avoid the degradation of their native rainforest. Natural and organic methods are used to control pests. Today, El Ceibo farmers grow 70 percent of the total organic cocoa cultivated in Bolivia. El Ceibo was also the first cooperative to process its own cocoa into chocolate and powder. The Fair Trade price has enabled El Ceibo to establish various social and productive programs Organic Certification Agency: Ecocert |
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