Thank you! Merci!

A final little note to say thank you to all of the wonderful people we met in Panama and Costa Rica, and thank you to all of you for reading about our adventures!

Grâce à tous!

Quality Beans

The following post was written by Shannon Devine, Quality Assurance Manager at La Siembra Co-operative, and summarizes COCABO's quality assurance process.

COCABO emphasizes that the quality of the beans produced by their farmers is just as important to them as the quantity produced. Before farmers can sell their beans to the co-op, they are put through a sieve to remove any foreign particles. A sample of beans is then pulled from the bags and evaluated by a quality technician. The technician will make sure that the beans do not show any signs of mold or insects, that they are properly fermented and dried and that they fall within a specified range for size, acidity, moisture, etc. If the beans do not fall within certain specifications they are rejected.

A percentage of farms are inspected on an annual basis by organic inspectors to ensure that producers are complying with organic standards. COCABO also has its own team of technicians who inspect every single farm on a yearly basis. Technicians show farmers how to improve the quality of their beans by teaching them various agricultural techniques from regular pruning of the forests to crop diversification and composting.

Not all farmers produce organic crops, therefore the prevention of cross-contamination from conventional crops is one of the main focuses of both the external and internal inspections. COCABO farmers are responsible for the fermentation and drying of their beans before they are sold. Giving producers this responsibility means that they have more ownership over their crops, which results in a higher quality product.

Eco-Logica et Valle Junquito

The following post was written by Martin Van Den Borre, and summarizes his meeting with organic certifiers Eco-Logica, as well as his impressions of our visit to Valle Junquito, as discussed in a previous post.

18 novembre, 2008

Finalement une journée complète de programmée avec une communtée de producteurs! Lever vers 6h30 à l'hotel Alhambra, un petit hotel de camionneur sur la route du port bananier ou se trouve le bureau pricipal de COCABO. Il pleut des cordes et on se demande si ce sera possible de se rendre dans les montagnes pour y rencontrer nos hôtes. À notre arrivée aux bureaux, Thomas Marvin Archibald, Le vice président me rappelle la visite des inspecteurs de la firme Eco-Logica, qui viennent de débarquer pour vérifier la conformité de la coopérative aux normes de certification biologique. Il me demande d'être présent pour la rencontre initiale, avec le groupe de 5 inspecteurs, le personnel de la coopérative et Shannon Devine, notre spécialiste en Assurance Qualité chez La Siembra.

Cette année Ecologica concentrera sa vérification auprès des membres les plus récents de la coopérative et auprès des membres ayant déjà fait l'objet d'un avis de non conformité (généralement dû à des question de documentation inadéquate). Toutes les visites sont faites sans notification préalables. Même l'employé responsable de la certification n'a été averti de leur visite que deux jours auparavant. Les cinq inspecteurs resteront 5 jours sur place, inspecterons plus de 120 producteurs, en apportant une attention particulière aux différents sites de transbordement, le transport, l'entreposage, et assurant une vérification de la traçabilité de la documentation. Il en ressort de la présentation de l’inspecteur en Chef que COCABO jouit d’une excellente réputation.

Pendant que le travail d'inspection démarre, nous nous partons pour la communauté de Valle Junquito, une petite communauté d'améridiens Ngobe-Bugle, située au coeur des Monts Talamancas. Deux personnes de notre délégation n'ont jamais visité une communautée rurale comme celle-ci. L'impression est forte. Nous sommes restés toute la journée à discuter avec les femmes, les hommes, les enfants. Les producteurs avaient énormément de questions...et nous aussi! Plus de 6 heures passées dans la forêt a parler de cacao, d'agriculture biologique, de commerce équitable, de coopération, de politique, et des problématiques auxquelles ils font face. Des heures de conversation qui méritent un texte à part….à suivre.

Valle Junquito

We started the day at COCABO’s office – greeting farmers who arrived with cocoa beans to sell. After a meeting with Eco Logico, organic certifiers visiting to ensure that farmers are meeting organic standards, we headed out to a nearby cocoa farming community, Valle Junquito, to meet some of the 800 people who live there.

Valle Junquito is stunning. Humble wooden and bamboo houses are nestled in the valley between lush, green hills where the cocoa trees grow. The population are Ngobe-Bugle indigenous people and there is a vibrant and lively feel to the community. We first visited the house of the village leaders, where we met Don Pinera, village elder, and Don Pedro, leader and medicinal healer, According to Sr. Pedro, "Through COCABO [the producer co-op] we received the message that we should transition to organic. Since then the price has increased and we have seen the impact of fair trade." The community consistently works to improve the quality of the cocoa, and now has 24 drying and fermentation stations erected.

On our visit we had our first taste of the sweet pulp found inside a cocoa pod, learned about the impact of monillia (a disease affecting many cocoa trees) and were welcomed into a local home for lunch.

Here are just a few of the people we met:

Daniel Santo & Anna Christina Rupinel: Getting to Daniel & Anna Christina’s farm was an adventure, as we hopped across a riverbed, rambled over bridges and climbed our way through wet soil. Daniel told us that in the beginning he was working to survive but has seen a difference since joining the co-op. He talked about the importance of crop diversification (many farmers grow bananas, pineapples, yams and other crops) as well as the co-operative and its democratic structure. Daniel and Anna Christina have 14 children, ranging in age from 2 to 31 years old.

Medina Salina Morales & Guillermo: Machetes in hand for a walk down the road, we then visited the farm of Medina & Guillermo’s, as well as a second farm located nearby. On these two visits we saw more evidence of crop diversification, a cacao nursery housing 3000 plants and cocoa pod shells being composted.

Maribelle Abrego, Lourdes Abrego and Yariela Lopez: These girls, aged 10, 10 and 7 respectively, are children of cocoa farmers in Valle Junquito and attend the community school, which hosts children from kindergarten to grade nine.

Almirante

After a day in San José, Costa Rica meeting with representatives from APPTA (a Costa Rican cocoa co-op) and FINMAC (cocoa processors) we flew into beautiful Bocas del Toro on a 19-seater Twin Otter yesterday. We spent the night on Bastimientos Island and had an early morning start today, taking 2 water taxis to arrive at COCABO’s offices in Almirante. After an impressive tour of the office, weighing station and hardware store, we met with representatives of the Board of Directors (BoD). Here we had an opportunity to learn more about each other’s organizations; we discussed current projects, challenges, and the impact of belonging to the fair trade system.

COCABO has 35 permanent staff members, hiring extra help during harvest times (today there were 7 extra employees). Gender equality came up frequently in our discussions, and women are employed in prominent positions: there is 1 woman on the 7-member BoD and 1 woman on the Vigilance Committee. These days the co-op receives approximately 6000 kilos/day from farmers, 30 to 40 of whom arrive daily to sell their beans. While some have farms nearby, others may walk for up to 2 days to sell their 100 -150 pound bags of cocoa beans.

Unlike many cocoa co-ops, the farmers ferment and dry their own beans before selling them to COCABO, which the BoD says leads to improved quality due to ownership over this process. Fair trade premiums, as determined by the co-op’s general assembly in 2007, are currently being used to buy dryers (marcacinas) and fermentation boxes (fermentadoras), as well as to build warehouses in communities located far from COCABO. USAID and the Panamanian government also fund development projects at COCABO related to drying and fermenting.

We’re looking forward to heading out to the farms tomorrow to meet with more cocoa producers…

Après un transit au Costa Rica, où nous avons eu une reunion avec un représentant de la cooperative APPTA et un transformateur local de Cacao, nous avons pris un petit avion en direction du Panama. Un taxi et deux bateaux plus tard nous voici dans le port bananier dAlmirante, où se trouvent les bureaux principaux de COCABO. Après une visite des installations de COCABO, le Vice president de la cooperative, des représentants du conseil dadministration et le gérant general ont passé la journée avec nous a discuter de nos organisations, de nos projets et des défis liés au commerce equitable et á la construction d’une économie sociale.

Demain nous passons la journée dans la montagne à visiter les producteurs sur leurs fermes où nous aurons l’occasion de de voir comment se passe la grande récolte….

Meet COCABO

COCABO, the co-op we'll be visiting in Almirante, Bocas des Toro, was founded in 1952. It is the only Panamanian producer co-op that is certified fair trade (www.fairtrade.net) and produces 600 cubic tonnes of cocoa per year, of which 400 tonnes are certified organic. The co-op brings together approximately 1200 families, most of them Naso and Ngobe natives. In addition to cocoa, the co-op also sells pineapple and banana crops, and owns and operates five hardware stores and a small sawmill. It therefore plays a major role in the socio-economic development of its members and their communities.

Martin Van Den Borre of La Siembra visited the co-op in January 2008 and was able to meet with members to discuss the co-op's experiences after three years on the fair trade market. Co-op members shared their thoughts on the positive impact of fair trade premiums, discussing the organization's efforts to improve crop yield and quality. These efforts are financially supported by fair trade and organic premiums, as well as by Pronatec AG, La Siembra's Swiss partner, who is directly funding projects aimed at improving crop yield and quality. With training sessions on pruning, grafting and phytosanitary cocoa management, this organization is currently experiencing an intense period of growth and increasing professionalism. However, they also outlined the impact and challenges linked to the increasing price of organic cocoa.

At our meetings next week we hope to learn more about COCABO, as well as discuss various ways that La Siembra can work with COCABO to reach its objectives and achieve success in future projects.

Gearing up for our producer tour

Four La Siembraites are busy packing our bags for Panama. We're getting ready to spend a week visiting COCABO (Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples de Cacao Bocatereña), a fair trade co-operative of small-scale cocoa producers located in Almirante, Bocas del Toro. We'll keep you posted on our adventures as we meet the amazing producers who grow cocoa beans, tour warehouses, visit cocoa groves, and much much more. Join us as we follow the camino from bean to bar...