News

The volatility of cocoa prices is presenting huge challenges for our customers and also for ourselves, as a cocoa processor and partner for smallholders. What is the structural imbalance that has led to the crisis? And how are we dealing with it?

Our organic vanilla from Madagascar is mostly purchased green from the smallholders and then professionally fermented and dried at centres run by PREMIUM SPICES. This means it complies with the highest quality standards.

Our organic sugar partner in Mozambique has added a worm compost production unit to its circular economy process. By doing so, EcoFarm is boosting both the soil and the plants and also creating more job opportunities.

Cocoa from agroforestry systems is based on regenerative practices and is climate-resilient. A workshop run by EcoTop in Bolivia demonstrated new ways of combining economic efficiency and biodiversity.

Many of PRONATEC’s projects go beyond the minimum requirements provided by organic and fair trade standards. Our current biodiversity project in the Dominican Republic fosters species diversity whilst creating valuable additional revenue for smallholder families.

Grown by smallholder cooperatives in Madagascar, our turmeric products are characterised by their particularly high curcumin content and have a range of characteristics that make them highly valuable. What are the benefits of turmeric, and what are the different forms (cut, fine cut and powder) used for?

PRONATEC Swiss Cocoa Production has increased its production capacity by adding a second ball mill for producing cocoa mass. We have also added roasted coca nibs to our range.

PRONATEC has started developing software that will make it possible to reliably collect georeferenced data of cocoa plantations as required under the EU Deforestation Regulation and digitalise all documentation relating to the internal control system (ICS).

Our ROC-certified cocoa mass, butter, powder and nibs from Dominican Republic are available now. Read on to find out why we had no problems with obtaining the exacting Regenerative Organic Certified certification, and why we haven't had a single case of child labour at our subsidiary YACAO and the cocoa producing smallholders in the Dominican Republic...

The cocoa department at PRONATEC is ready for the new EU regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. An overview of all the requirements and what we are doing now.

An assessment carried out in September shows there have been no pesticide cases in our semi-finished cocoa products since production started. This is thanks to our production being 100% organic, but also thanks to our unique cocoa bean analysis procedures.

In the Dominican Republic, our partner cooperative FUNDOPO is currently selling around 70,000 cocoa seedlings at cost price. The aim? Long-term improvements in yield and income for smallholders.

The prices for conventional sugar are at a historic high and nearly the same as the prices for organic sugar. That's why switching to organic now could be worthwhile for a number of reasons.

Our Head Sugar Nicolo Rieben visited Costa Rica and Paraguay. What is a typical day in the life of a sugar cane farmer like? In his face-to-face conversations, Nicolo learnt a great deal about the difficult work ofarvesting sugar cane and the valuable support available from cooperatives.

Sustainability and social responsibility across the entire supply chain are central concerns of ours. We are members of Sedex and would be delighted for you to connect with us!

In 2021, PRONATEC had already achieved 2 million in fair trade premium payments. In 2022, we were able to go even further: Precisely 2,364,735 US dollars were paid out in 2022 to the smallholders – a new record!

The harvest of our organic cane sugar from Paraguay ended in November, and that of the organic European beet sugar finished a few weeks ago. This provides a good opportunity to take a closer look at these two sources of sugar. How do things currently stand with regard to prices, sustainability and social development?

Our Dominican subsidiary YACAO brings around 3000 smallholders from the FUNDOPO farmers' organisation into the PRONATEC supply chain. "The stories of YACAO and FUNDOPO are inextricably linked with one another". A personal interview with the managing directors of these two organisations.

Many consumers want natural food products without any artificial additives. The changes to the European Organic Regulation have also accelerated the trend for natural flavourings. More and more food producers are ceasing to use vanilla flavourings and switching to vanilla extracts instead. 

The French organic and fair trade association Biopartenaire is run through exemplary participatory processes and plays a key role in shaping the market in France. We are proud to have been on board as a member for over ten years.