Jan 28, 2026

Women’s group within the ACOPAGRO cooperative

PRONATEC’s 2025 Christmas donation is providing targeted support for two women’s groups in the ACOPAGRO cooperative. The project aims to increase their economic independence and establish additional sources of income. It will also promote specialist skills and get more women into management roles.The women’s groups have developed successful craft and cocoa processing initiatives in recent years and produce items including handmade bags and accessories as well as their own chocolate products.

The focus will be on the following priorities for the 2026–2027 project phase:

The implementation plan for the project has been clearly defined. Institutional support from ACOPAGRO and regular success monitoring should ensure the measures have a long-term impact and can be continued independently by the women.

Like many other organisations in the Global South, smallholder cooperative FUNDOPO is currently facing extensive regulatory requirements related to the EU Regulation on deforestation-free supply chains (EUDR) and the new EU organic regulation. To support the changeover, FUNDOPO was granted a subsidy from Fairtrade Deutschland’s HREDD Support Fund. The funding goes directly to the cooperative and is used to cover adaptation costs, including additional staff, certifications and internal processes.

PRONATEC provides additional support in this process: we give targeted support in using the abunda+ software, which FUNDOPO uses to record and manage EUDR-relevant data. We also provide financing for individual certifications for those farms no longer covered by group certification due to the new EU organic regulation.

This combination of external funding and targeted support from PRONATEC should reduce the burden on FUNDOPO and help with structured implementation of the new regulatory requirements on a long-term basis.

FUNDOPO: supporting smallholder farmers with the abunda+ software

2024 Christmas donation: expansion of the public primary school successfully completed

We have been working closely with our Malagasy partner PREMIUM SPICES, which strengthens local smallholders through purchase guarantees and by supporting them with processing, quality assurance and certification, for more than 20 years. Through our 2024 Christmas donation, PRONATEC was able to support the children of the KOMAM cooperative’s vanilla and clove producers in north-east Madagascar.

The donation enabled the expansion of the public primary school in Ambohimitsinjo. The new classrooms are now complete and have been in regular use since the start of the school year.

The official inauguration took place in October 2025 and was attended by the KOMAM cooperative, the local education authority and the PREMIUM SPICES team. The expansion of the school building has clearly improved learning conditions: all students now have more space and benefit from structured lessons.

Simple, practical solutions are often what make the day-to-day work of cooperative members easier. In Madagascar, this is particularly evident in logistics: poor roads and inadequate infrastructure make transporting harvests and materials significantly more difficult. This slows down all processes and leads to additional expenses.

To mitigate these challenges, a used lorry was purchased for the cooperatives that work with PREMIUM SPICES. As part of a joint logistics project it is now being used successfully.

It was financed from several sources: around half came from a French fund, with the remainder covered by PREMIUM SPICES and Yogi Tea. PRONATEC was actively involved in facilitating the project.

The lorry is now providing significant support in transport for the cooperatives and contributing to more efficient work processes.

A donated lorry provides logistical relief for PREMIUM SPICES cooperative members

ECOTOP training at the demonstration plot: soil-friendly cocoa farming in agroforestry

As part of a larger landscape project in Madagascar, PRONATEC is contributing to an agroforestry subproject at CPCS (Cooperative Premium Cacao Sambirano), a smallholder cooperative for fine flavour cocoa. The project is is co-financed, among others, by SWISSCO, the Swiss platform for sustainable cocoa.

A total of 15 agroforestry trial plots are being established at CPCS. The project is being implemented gradually by ECOTOP, an organisation specialising in dynamic agroforestry. Although local political unrest has put plans behind the original schedule, the first trial plots are now being successfully converted.

PRONATEC is providing support with administrative processes and funding to clarify and secure land titles for the small producers involved – which is a key requirement for long-term investments and sustainable management.