Proud Smallholder Farmers
- To support our smallholder farmers, we pay them a fair price far above the average market rate enabling them to secure their livelihood. Our Trinitario fine cocoa is directly purchased from cooperatives to avoid unnecessary intermediaries, so more money can remain with the producers.
- We personally know all our 2500 cocoa farmers and work with them in true long-term partnerships allowing our customers to tell about and participate in the moving success story behind the beans while benefitting from full cocoa traceability.
Sustainable Cultivation
We continuously train our farmers in the conversion of their plantations into sustainable agroforestry systems. Currently, the farmers cultivate cocoa in combination with timber trees such as mahogany or cedar. They provide the cocoa with needed shade, nutrients and water. Our vision is to introduce a dynamic agroforestry system in which farmers are being persuaded to cultivate further crops (e.g. banana, mango, manioc) in combination with cocoa in order to enrich their cultivation system. Balanced mixed cultivation protects the soil and strengthens the plants. The income of farmers is increased and diversified. Nature also benefits since the biodiversity on the plantations is increased leading the insects that are so vital for pollination to return. The huge timber trees prevent erosion and protect the climate.
Strong Cooperatives
- We support smallholder farmers in forming independent, stable cooperatives and provide them with direct, favourable market access for their cocoa beans.
- We support our partner cooperatives with regular and extensive training to improve post-harvest processing and thus the quality of the beans. To that end, we consequently develop and improve the fermentation and drying processes in our own post-harvest centre.
Professional Quality Management
- To ensure compliance to the set safety limits, thorough quality assurance checks are performed in our laboratory. In addition, further tests are carried out by our partner laboratory in Honduras, enabling us to complete all required analysis before the cocoa is shipped.
- Our quality management team consists of experts with over ten years of professional experience. They were trained extensively and over the course of several years by our parent company, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Chocolats Halba.
Expert Export
- Thanks to our many years of experience, we have the know-how and contacts to manage the complete supply chain – from the moment the beans are packed to loading them onto the cargo ship and delivering them to their port of destination.
- For the past ten years, we have been successfully exporting Trinitario fine cocoa to Chocolats Halba, one of the most respected Swiss chocolate manufacturers. Chocolats Halba creates Single Origin chocolates for the highest standards from our cocoa. They are among the top sellers in their segment.