Ecuador – Transmar Cocoa Project

Strengthening the Cocoa Marketing Chain

Historically, smallholder cocoa growers in Ecuador have been vulnerable to many factors restricting their income potential, including market fluctuations, price gouging by middlemen and a lack of knowledge of modern farming techniques. ACDI/VOCA’s development efforts in Ecuador aim to empower smallholders and alleviate poverty by helping them grow premium cocoa and connect to specialty markets.

Building on the work of ACDI/VOCA’s current USDA-funded SUCCESS Alliance program in Ecuador, the private sector cocoa exporter Transmar Ecuador, a member of the World Cocoa Foundation, funds ACDI/VOCA’s 1-year, $99,000 Transmar Cocoa Project. Under the initiative, ACDI/VOCA assists farmer field school (FFS) participants from the SUCCESS Alliance program in building sustainable producer associations. The object is to improve post-harvest processing and marketing techniques to strengthen the cocoa marketing chain.

The Transmar Cocoa Project will generate 1,050 jobs in Guayas, Los Rios, Manabí and Esmeraldas provinces. The program works with cocoa producers who have already participated in FFSs and received ACDI/VOCA’s signature Farming as a Business (FaaB) training. The best producer groups have been chosen from among the 21,700 producers who went through the FFSs.

Benefits to the producers will be significant. They will receive 90 percent of the price paid instead of 65 percent of the price paid by manufacturer/exporters.. In addition, they will receive technical assistance in production and post-harvest management that will strengthen their ability to work as a group. After learning appropriate production and group marketing techniques, it is expected that the producers will achieve improvements in farm income of at least 50 percent.

The benefit to Transmar Ecuador is also important. Besides organizing the producers into associations, ACDI/VOCA will provide them with training on how to offer a consistently high-quality product in increasing volumes. The exporter will receive a consistent supply of premium cocoa and the volume will increase as the producer groups implement the new techniques.

For more information, contact Terrence J. Ryan at tryan@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 10/08