Donate a portion of your sales
Sales for solidarity
By selling your products, your company can choose to donate a few cents from each transaction to AVSF: it’s a way to show your commitment to your customers while having a real impact on vulnerable smallholder populations and the planet.
Christelle BERJOT, Head of sponsorships and private partnerships, is here to help you get started.
Example of the chocolate bar for solidarity
Terra Etica, Biocoop and AVSF teamed up to create a 100% organic, fair-trade chocolate bar produced at Terra Etica’s chocolate factory in the Gers department of France. Each time a bar is sold, 20 euro cents are donated to AVSF.
The cocoa used to make this bar is not just any cocoa. Produced by the Norandino smallholder cooperative in Piura (northern Peru), this high-end “criollo” cocoa comes from a hardy variety with a uniquely delicate aroma that allows producers to receive a higher price. The high quality Norandino has achieved is thanks in part to the technical support provided by AVSF and its partner Progreso.
AVSF’s technical support
AVSF and Progreso began providing technical assistance to Norandino in 2005: training producers, re-establishing the criollo variety, helping certain types of production convert to organic, fermenting and drying beans at a common location in order to ensure consistent quality. Technicians were trained to perform quality control and carry out these fundamental steps.
AVSF and Progreso also help the cooperative and smallholder organisations strengthen their management capacities in order to help them become autonomous and sustainable by offering training in administrative, accounting and financial monitoring.
Lastly, the search for outlets through fair trade has been the focus of sustained effort: putting producers and international customers in contact with one another, participation in exhibitions and trade fairs, invitations for potential buyers to visit smallholder organisations, creation of a Salon du Chocolat in Peru, positioning in fair-trade markets, etc.
An outstanding success
From the outset, Ethiquable has always sourced cocoa from Norandino and is the cooperative’s main customer, followed later by Valrhona and other chocolate makers.
Norandino currently exports 2,000 tonnes of cocoa a year, a large portion of which is organic, at one of the highest prices in Peru, for the benefit of the cooperative’s 7,000 producers. But the cooperative decided to take things a step further by building a facility for processing cocoa beans into chocolate. This major investment allows the cooperative to keep the added value from processing the beans, which used to go to Western chocolate makers, and further increase the sale price of its production.
Sustainable sourcing: another way to support smallholder organisations
Is your company looking to source high-quality agricultural products? We identify and put you in contact with smallholder cooperatives to forge fair and sustainable partnerships.
