ACOPAGRO celebrates its 25th anniversary

ACOPAGRO, the Peruvian cooperative of small-scale farmers, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. We would like to sincerely congratulate our strategic partner on this fantastic anniversary! There were exuberant celebrations in the town of Juanjuí at the end of June. The members of the cooperative and their families took part in a procession, dancing through the streets next to imaginatively decorated trucks.

Most farmers in the region used to grow coca leaves but these days they harvest Fairtrade-certified organic cocoa, which is exported to Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the USA. This year, ACOPAGRO will supply approximately 3,500 tonnes of organic cocoa beans to its main country of exportation, Switzerland, and its biggest customer, PRONATEC.

ACOPAGRO, which produces only Fairtrade-certified organic cocoa, is one of the country’s most impressive cooperatives, both in terms of the number of members and the quality of the exported cocoa. In addition to the revenue from the cocoa sales, ACOPAGRO members also benefit from technical support and agricultural credit, for example. This is all possible thanks to the additional Fairtrade Premiums paid and the good prices paid for the high-quality cocoa beans. In recent years, the cooperative has successfully managed to diversify its agricultural production, for example approximately 3 million trees were planted for logging, as well as ginger and limes. The sale of these products is intended to generate valuable additional revenue.

ACOPAGRO and PRONATEC have been close partners ever since the cooperative was set up – at a time when Peruvian cocoa was still virtually unheard-of on the global market. Thanks to the close cooperation with PRONATEC, ACOPAGRO has gained access to many international customers. The cooperative is now the largest and probably the most successful exporter of organic cocoa in Peru.

We wish ACOPAGRO every success in the future!