Munch on some fair chocolate All’s well that involves chocolate, right? Sadly, the production of cocoa is often anything but sweet – and the conditions that the farmers work under are especially bitter. We want our chocolate to not only be good for your taste buds, but also for the people involved in making it. That’s why we source the cocoa that’s used in our chocolate from a number of cooperatives in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. By working together like this, several thousand farming families are able to ensure they get a fair price for their goods. The Fair Trade premiums that they generate together are used to support future-oriented local projects like, for example, setting up a correspondence school for the children. To find out which cooperatives produce the cocoa for your Veganz bars, take a look at this list. Close-up hands of a cocoa farmer use pruning shears to cut the cocoa pods or fruit ripe yellow cacao from the cacao tree. Harvest the agricultural cocoa business produces. APPTA, COSTA RICA The APPTA cooperative is made up of more than 1,000 farming families from 23 groups of villages in Costa Rica. The members support each other in their daily work and have together managed to become Fair Trade partners and certified organic producers with a way of working that benefits everybody. The APPPTA farming families have a strong focus on sustainable resource management. Thanks to the Fair Trade premiums, they have already been able to implement several fantastic projects in recent years, among them a correspondence school that’s making it possible even for children who live in remote areas to get an education. They have also been able to set up a secondary school and implement a number of other projects aimed at improving the infrastructure and working conditions in the region. COOPEAGRI R.L., COSTA RICA CoopeAgri is an organisation working according to the principles of a social market economy that has set itself the goal of improving the quality of life for its members. They are doing this by creating better growing conditions and optimising the equipment that’s available on the farms. The cooperative attaches particular importance to the integration of women as equal and important members. In all that, protecting the environment isn’t forgotten either: CoopeAgri ensures that the region’s beautiful nature is preserved through reforestation, natural regeneration, the protection of water sources, and a controlled trade with timber. CONACADO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Conacado is a cooperative and one of the Dominican Republic’s largest cocoa exporters with around 8500 farming families. The cooperative already earned its Fair Trade certification back in 1995 and has since enabled the farming families to earn a regular income, while also investing in important infrastructure projects, education, and health. Part of the profit is invested in the members’ individual projects like irrigation systems or improvements to buildings, and the cooperative funds the school fees for the children of poorer families. COOPROAGRO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Cooproagro is an association of small local farmers who, thanks to the association, were able to liberate themselves from the restrictions imposed by a reform of the agrarian system in the 1970s. In working together, they specialised in the production of cocoa and created a sustainable income for their members by building relationships with fair trade organisations. In recent years, the cooperative has expanded roads and electricity supplies in villages and built schools with canteens that have benefitted not just the farming families, but all of the region’s inhabitants.