La Siembra Co-op

La Siembra Co-op sources its fair trade certified organic cocoa from CONACADO (Confederacion Nacional de Cacaocultores Dominicanos) in the Dominican Republic. CONACADO is a registered co-operative producer group on the Fair Trade Labelling Organization's International (FLO) cocoa producer register. It is comprised of 9,000 small-scale farmers organized into 9 regional "bloque" associations consisting of 126 village associations. Throughout the organization, a total of approximately 80 persons are hired to assure the administration of the organisation at the national and regional levels.

Conacado was founded in 1988 as a response to low global cocoa prices and in order to assist small-scale cocoa farmers to improve their working and living conditions. Its aim is to generate work and income for disadvantaged groups in the society; to decrease dependency on intermediaries by exporting products directly, and to offer technical assistance and credit to farmers to improve the production quality of cocoa.

Cocoa is the main cash crop for the Conacado farmers as it accounts for 90% of the farmer's income. The cocoa is produced using organic agricultural techniques under the shade grown canopy of other fruit producing trees that provide extra income and food security for the farmers. Since 1997, CONACADO has been selling cocoa under fair trade certified conditions which has directly assisted farmers to establish plant nurseries in order to renovate and replant the vast number of cocoa and fruit trees destroyed by Hurricane George.

What CONACADO producers have said:

"In our country there was no tradition of fermenting cocoa. With the Fairtrade income, we were able to implement a fermentation programme to improve the quality and to convert our production to certified organic. This improved our position in the export-market. These days the competition for small scale farmers organizations has become very aggressive, so only niche markets allow us to survive. The Fairtrade market is for instance a very important market for our associates to survive. We would like to see the Fairtrade sales increase to improve our market position."

"With the Fairtrade premium of 1999, we had planned to build some important roads, but with hurricane George, which destroyed many of the farms and reduced our production with 70%, the General Assembly of members decided to use this money to 'clean up' the damaged farms and to create nurseries for new planting material."

Isidoro de la Rosa, Director Conacado - FLO Producer Profile, May 2000.