An anniversary trip to the Dominican Republic, an evening with customers at Biofach in Nuremberg, a reunion with current and former employees, an upcoming celebration in Madagascar and very soon, the fifth anniversary of our production facility in Beringen: several PRONATEC anniversaries are coinciding within a short space of time. YACAO’s 25th anniversary and PRONATEC’s 50th anniversary provide an opportunity to look back, while the next milestones – 20 years of PREMIUM SPICES and 5 years of organic cocoa processing – are already on the horizon.

Jun 17, 2026

To mark the 25th anniversary of our subsidiary YACAO, in October 2025 we travelled to the Dominican Republic with our business partners, where we followed the key stages in the cocoa production process: from cultivation in the smallholders’ plots, fermentation and drying to the preparation of the beans for export.

Highlights of the anniversary trip included meeting members of FUNDOPO, the smallholders’ organisation that has worked closely with YACAO from day one, and visiting projects funded by Fairtrade premiums. The trip culminated in a grand anniversary celebration in Santo Domingo, attended by employees and guests from all over the world.

Visiting smallholder farmer Wilson on his cocoa plot

Insights into export preparation

A joint celebration in Santo Domingo

The 50^th anniversary of PRONATEC was celebrated twice over in 2026. The first event consisted of an anniversary evening with business partners at Biofach in Nuremberg. After a busy day at the trade fair, the sound of salsa music provided the perfect backdrop for catching up with familiar faces and enjoying more relaxed conversations away from the lively atmosphere of the exhibition floor.

A special trade fair presentation in our anniversary year …

… and a festive evening with the people who have shared the company’s journey over the years

A big party was then held with employees in June: the various teams from Switzerland and Germany were joined by large numbers of former colleagues and employees from YACAO in the Dominican Republic and PREMIUM SPICES in Madagascar. Seeing so many people from the PRONATEC family gathered together in one place at the same time is a rare and special occasion.

During the drinks reception, David and Simon Yersin looked back on the key milestones in the company’s history and paid tribute to the company’s founder, Albert Yersin, whose visionary ideas laid the foundations for PRONATEC in 1976.

Familiar faces against a theatrical backdrop

Personal remarks by Simon and David Yersin during the drinks reception

Looking forward to “Reception” by Karl’s kühne Gassenschau

After dinner, the evening continued with “Reception”, the theatrical production by Karl’s kühne Gassenschau. Although there had been rain and thunderstorms earlier in the day, the clouds cleared just in time for the show to start. It was the perfect way to round off an evening filled with lively conversations with both familiar faces and new acquaintances.

Craftsmanship and a wealth of experience: processing of green vanilla pods by our long-standing partner, PREMIUM SPICES, in Madagascar

Another special anniversary event will take place in Madagascar in November 2026 when we look back on 20 years of PREMIUM SPICES with our local employees.
What began as an organic vanilla project has developed into a close partnership centred on organic and Fairtrade-certified vanilla, spices and fine flavour cocoa from Madagascar.

A small PRONATEC delegation will travel to Madagascar together with long-standing customers. As well as celebrating the anniversary with the employees of PREMIUM SPICES, participants will have the chance to meet members of smallholder cooperatives and visit villages and fields, including a number of remote growing areas that are difficult to reach. Opportunities like this do not come along every day, so we are very much looking forward to the encounters and impressions that await us in Madagascar.

PRONATEC Swiss Cocoa Production in Beringen will be celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2027. Since 2022, the team there has grown steadily, while production processes have evolved and become firmly established. Today, the world’s only purely organic cocoa processing plant produces high-quality cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa nibs that are all “made in Switzerland”. Behind these products is an interdisciplinary team made up of employees from production, engineering, quality assurance and logistics.

Since mid-June 2025, some of the electricity required has been generated directly from our own roof. Together with further electricity-saving measures, the solar panels helped to reduce grid electricity consumption by around a third in the first year of operation compared with the same period in the previous year.

Beringen: home to the world’s only facility dedicated exclusively to organic cocoa processing since 2022 …

… and, since 2025, operated with the help of solar power from its own roof

Following the start of production operations in Beringen, our value chain now extends from direct sourcing and processing at in the countries of origin right through to the manufacture of semi-finished cocoa products in Switzerland.

PRONATEC Production AG, based in Beringen (Canton of Schaffhausen), was merged with PRONATEC AG, headquartered in Winterthur, retroactively with effect from 1 January 2026. Operational cooperation was already closely coordinated before this date; the merger has now also aligned the existing structure from a legal perspective. This significantly reduces the administrative workload at both locations.

There will be no operational changes for our business partners: product quality, specifications, traceability, quality assurance processes and existing points of contact will remain unchanged. Production and processing operations at the Beringen site will continue as before.

“For me, anniversaries like this are a real rollercoaster of emotions. There is a sense of humility and of course a great deal of joy and a certain pride. Above all, however, today I am thinking of all the people who have shown such great dedication over the years. Whether in the countries of origin or here in Europe: we are united by our shared commitment to organic produce and fair trade, and by our belief that these principles can make a real difference. The fact that some of these people have been with us for decades – even through some very difficult times – is not something to be taken for granted. I am very grateful for that.”

David Yersin, CEO PRONATEC