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Connecting Communities Through Fair Trade Chocolate |
By Kelsie Evans, Chocolate Products Coordinator, and Ashley Symons, Writer/Editor
In late March, we were fortunate to have two visitors from CONACADO cacao co-operative in the Dominican Republic visiting for almost a week: Basilio Almonte de los Santos, an agronomist at CONACADO, and Ramón Matías Frías González, a cacao farmer, member of CONACADO’s Bloque 9, and Secretary on CONACADO’s Board of Directors.
While Equal Exchange worker-owners have the opportunity to visit our farmer partners, our customers rarely have the chance to travel and meet the farmers behind their coffee, tea or, in this case, chocolate and cocoa. Organizing tours, like this one with Basilio and Ramón, helps provide that personal, direct connection between our customers and the people behind their food.
Meet ‘n greet
So what did we do while they were here? They arrived on a Thursday afternoon. Avid baseball fans, they were excited to visit Fenway Park and get “Big Papi” burgers at a nearby restaurant. That evening, we took them to another Boston institution for dinner – Doyle’s Café in Jamaica Plain.
Friday began with a visit to the Equal Exchange Café near North Station in Boston. Basilio and Ramón were just as excited about being at the Café as customers were to meet them; Basilio and Ramón were touched to hear how much people value the chocolate and all the ways people support Equal Exchange, from selling at church to frequently visiting the Equal Exchange Café.
Later that day we visited another café and store, City Feed & Supply in Jamaica Plain. People don’t often associate chocolate with farming, so customers were really interested to hear about the work of Basilio and Ramón to produce the cacao in Equal Exchange's chocolate and cocoa. That evening ended with a great presentation to about 80 people at the JP Forum. Basilio and Ramón were excited about the great turnout and all the questions asked by the attendees.
The founding of the co-op
No matter how many times you hear it (and by the end of the trip, we heard it a lot), the story of CONACADO's success is inspiring. "The creation of CONACADO for us small producers has been incredibly important," said Ramón, who started farming cacao in 1982. CONACADO formed six years later in 1988, and after a few other producers in the area joined CONACADO, Ramón joined the co-op in 1992.
"Before I joined CONACADO, I had 1.25 hectares [of land] and I couldn't get credit from the bank with such a small amount of land," Ramón said. "Since joining, I have had access to credit and have increased my land ownership to 6.25 hectares, with an average production of three tons of cacao each year. This shows there’s been significant development [as a co-op member]." The average ownership for a cacao farmer in CONACADO is three hectares.
There are eight "bloques," or regional groups, in CONACADO, which represent 172 associations of producer groups. Today, 9,251 cacao producers belong to these associations. They are the largest exporter of cacao in the Dominican Republic and the top exporter of fairly traded organic cacao in the world. Nearly all of their cacao is certified Fair Trade and organic, but only 30-40 percent is sold to the Fair Trade market, and only 60-70 percent to the organic market, because there isn’t enough demand in the marketplace.
The work of CONACADO has not only transformed the lives of members of CONACADO, but also improved the situation for people in surrounding communities and for cacao farmers in the Dominican Republic in general. "Despite the fact that the Dominican Republic is small and the producers are small (especially compared to Africa), we have influenced the specialty market, especially among conscious consumers," Basilio said.
"Today, it's a very competitive [chocolate] market, it's not easy. Big businesses don't want us to succeed or this concept to grow… we feel very happy that there are organizations such as Equal Exchange and the allies of Equal Exchange that are trying to raise awareness among consumers and help provide better access and opportunities for producers. When consumers understand this choice and make this choice, we feel very lucky that all of you are here doing this work."
The Fair Trade difference
Cacao that is sold to the Fair Trade market receives a social premium, which then goes back to the co-ops. "With this Fair Trade social premium, we are able to provide programs and projects that are extremely needed in the communities," said Basilio. "It's actually the associations that determine what they need and how to spend the [social premium]." For example, Ramón said his bloque has been able to build schools, churches, bridges and health clinics, and make road repairs.
"I don’t know if you have an idea of what it's like in the countryside [in the Dominican Republic], but if you were there, you would see schools built out of wood that are in very, very poor condition - they don't have doors, windows, floors, just a dirt floor," Basilio said. "So when we go into a community and see a school repaired or something replaced, we feel very satisfied and we think about the dream that we had in 1988 and we feel like we’re actually making this dream a reality."
A cooperative supply chain
This reality has been thanks, in part, to the support of shoppers at food co-ops around the country. Over the weekend, we traveled to Brattleboro, VT and Albany, NY, to introduce the CONACADO visitors to some of these folks. In Brattleboro, Basilio and Ramón gave a presentation at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, followed by a tour of a local dairy and maple syrup farm. The farm, Lilac Ridge, is a member of Organic Valley Co-operative. Basilio and Ramón marveled at the scale of the farm, noting that a "small farm" in the U.S. would be considered a large farm in the Dominican Republic, especially considering the access to equipment and machinery.
From there we headed for Albany, NY. Sunday morning we visited Honest Weight Food Co-op, where Ramón and Basilio shared their stories and met with shoppers. After seeing both Brattleboro and Honest Weight, Basilio and Ramón were impressed with the consumer co-op model, noting that people seemed like engaged and conscientious shoppers.
Anna McMahon of Delmar, NY, attended the event at Honest Weight. At the close of the presentation she said to the group, "I feel very inspired by all of you. Thank you for organizing this [event]. In the Fair Trade movement, sometimes it can feel like an 'us' and ‘them’ mentality. This has been an opportunity to see that it’s actually all of us working together."
In the afternoon, Basilio and Ramón gave another presentation at St. Michael’s church in Troy, NY. This event featured a chocolate fountain and ended up being a favorite of Ramón and Basilio because there were so many enthusiastic people. We were fortunate to spend Sunday evening with Anne Kelly from the Labor-Religion Coalition, part of New York State Union of Teachers (NYSUT), and some students at the Emma Willard school. 
A common vision
Monday we spent the day at Equal Exchange, seeing the coffee roaster, giving yet another presentation, and meeting with many worker-owners. Ramón commented that our two organizations were "founded in similar situations, and the work we are trying to achieve has a lot in common." As Basilio said, "While we didn't know about Equal Exchange when we were founded, we are in agreement with their slogan: 'Small Farmers. Big Change.'"
And as Ramón said later, the way consumers can support change in farming communities is by purchasing fairly traded chocolate from co-ops.
On their last day, Tuesday, Basilio and Ramón traveled around Boston visiting four schools with our Fundraising Program reps. Students asked the visitors questions like, "Why do the cacao pods change color when they ripen?" and "How does the cacao get to us and the stores?" Virginia Berman, the Fundraising Program Director, said, "[We all] left comforted by what's possible when children start to get involved in thinking about our food and the farmers who grow it." Ramón and Basilio were really excited to show off the letters and cards students made for them.
We dropped them off at the airport early Wednesday morning and it was sad to see them go. The visit was inspirational for all of us. Before leaving, Basilio said, "It's been such an honor to be here and share our stories with you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for giving value to the work we’re doing."
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Our Co-op 
