"Stories from BioFach
“Mesca Osha Chocolate is the first organic and Fairtrade chocolate brand produced by a South American farmer cooperative,” announces the proud label of my new chocolate bar. What Naranjillo cooperative has accomplished in producing their own (delicious!) chocolate bar is no small feat. Chocolate, wonderful chocolate, is a complex product which requires top level equipment and expertise. Cocoa-producing countries almost never make their own but are stuck exporting raw cocoa beans to Europe and North America. “Naranjillo is completely unique. We have always reinvested all of our Fairtrade Premium money to improve our processing equipment and our farms,” Rolando Herrera, president of Naranjillo, tells me as we sit together at his booth at the BioFach trade fair.Naranjillo now owns three processing plants for their cocoa, coffee and chocolate. They will soon receive new, top-of-the-line cocoa processing equipment imported from Germany, a first for Peru. Rolando tells me that with this new equipment, Naranjillo will not only be able to process the cocoa from their own farmers but they will offer this service to other smaller Fairtrade cooperatives. Together they will supply 70% of Peru’s cocoa.And what does all this mean for Naranjillo’s 5000 members? Ronaldo tells me how many farmers are now finishing high school or even studying at university. Some of their children are getting Master’s degrees. Family incomes have improved. They have successfully convinced farmers from the region to switch from producing coca for the drug trade to cocoa for my chocolate bar. Mmm, delicious."
— Fairtrade on the road
