Interview with our Head Buyer Cocoa in Yamasá

Jeimy, you are head buyer of cocoa in Yamasá¹. Please tell us a bit more about yourself.

My name is Jeimy Sugey Jiménez Brito; I was born and still live in Yamasá in the Dominican Republic. When I was very young I studied agronomy at the “Instituto Politecnico Loyola” in San Cristóbal.  After that I graduated as an agronomic engineer at the autonomous university of Santo Domingo in 2012.

What is your work experience?

I started out with an NGO and another institution related to cocoa, where I gathered my first work experience for 3 years.

When did you start at YACAO?

YACAO hired me in 2003. Even though I had experience in social work with smallholder cocoa producers, I did not have any commercial experience at all. However I became aware of an excellent opportunity. It consisted of starting a project from scratch, by building up a buying and processing operation to which I could strongly contribute with my initiative and decisions from the very beginning. The start was extremely demanding and challenging as none of us really had experience. There where mistakes but also lots of success, which allowed us to position ourselves as a reliable and stable business partner for our cocoa suppliers.

Please tell us about your family

Smiles… between 2006 and 2008 I gave birth to my children Samuel Antonio and Dulce Elena. They are the ones that have given me the strength to grow, to travel the back roads and tp fight for every bag of cocoa every day. In 2009 I left YACAO, as it was too much to combine work and two small children.

When did you come back?

Thanks god I was allowed to return in 2011, as YACAO granted me the opportunity to come back to work again. Unfortunately the operation had been closed and all our efforts from the beginning had to be rebuilt. Thanks to god and with lots of efforts and hard work, we managed to regain the confidence of the producers, growing for the initial 5,000 bags of cocoa to over 30,000 bags in 7 year only.

How did you manage to achieve this impressive growth?

Rather simple, our work ethics at YACAO. We have been fulfilling every last bit of what we promised and offered to our suppliers. We have always strived for the benefit of all parts involved in the contracts, both the suppliers and ourselves. We have always been fully transparent with the numbers, too. Furthermore I have always done my best in supporting the small holders in selling their beans at the best price possible and maximize their income.

And how many suppliers do you work with?

Well currently with over 600 small cocoa farmers. They are organized in 24 Groups. All of them are organic certified producers. I see however a very large potential for our operations in Yamasá, there are many more producers that want to work with us and get organic certified as well.

Thank you very much Jeimy, we wish you all the best for 2019 and lots of success in your buying operation.

¹Yamasá

In Yamasá there is one of the “centros de producción” from Yacao S.R.L., a subsidiary of PRONATEC in the Dominican Republic. The cocoa beans are regularly collected from more than 600 farms and fermented, dried and prepared for export in the processing facilities.