I’ve mentioned the social premium aspect of fairtrade in previous posts. I consider that at least as important as the guaranteed price, the other leg of the fairtrade system. My visit to the Toledo Cocoa Growers Association, though, taught me that there are different ways to distribute that social premium.
Tooting my own horn
My article on cocoa growers in Belize was just published by my local paper, the Ashland Daily Tidings.
At the San Antonio Buying Depot
The Toledo Cocoa Growers Association (TCGA) maintains three buying depots. One at its headquarters in Punta Gorda, one in San Antonio and one in Mayamopan. Each depot received beans that have been fermented and dried. The TCGA specs are straightforward–box fermentation for six days with bean turn-over every two days and then sun drying until the beans reach the proper residual moisture, generally six days as well.
The Toledo Cocoa Growers Association
I’m finally back from a wonderful visit to the Toledo Cocoa Growers Association (TCGA) in Punta Gorda, Belize. The name may not say much to most chocolate lovers, but it this cooperative that provides the beans for Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate bar. It was one of the earliest cooperatives certified for fairtrade cocoa.
The TCGA has developed into a viable organization, despite its troubles beginnings in the mid-1980s. It was founded in response to the Hershey-Hummingbird project, an attempt to restart cocoa production in Belize. When cocoa prices collapsed in the early 1990s, Hershey abandonned the project and left the farmers holding the bag.
