Building a sustainable chain for cocoa and chocolate with Norandino and Chocolatemakers

César and Santiago have been working with Rabo Foundation and the Amsterdam Chocolatemakers for decades. Together, the three partners initiated a chain reaction of improvements over the years. ‘Rabo Foundation has been supporting Norandino since the start,’ says Lygia, program manager for Latin America. ‘We have seen the cooperative grow from a small player to a professional organization that is of great importance to thousands of farming families.’

The collaboration helps cocoa farmers affiliated with Norandino to produce more cocoa of better quality in a sustainable way. This results in a better price on the world market, where Norandino sells the cocoa for them. 'All cocoa is fully traceable. In a market with so many small players, transparency about the origin is very important,' says Lygia. Norandino has organized this well: all affiliated farmers work organically, and their cocoa plantations can be precisely traced with georeferencing. But that is not everything. Santiago: 'In every local community, the farmers themselves keep track of exactly how much cocoa each family supplies. The farmers are also jointly responsible for the fermentation, drying and transport of the cocoa to Norandino. By combining local knowledge with modern technology, we can guarantee the origin. We prove that small producers can also deliver high quality and that small-scale agriculture can be profitable. Both the producer and the consumer benefit from this.'

The latter is exactly why Rodney Nikkels from Chocolatemakers buys his cocoa from Norandino. 'I knew César and Santiago from the time when I worked on the plantations in Peru. I thought that the position of the farmers was improving too slowly, so I decided to start a chocolate factory myself,’ he explains. Rodney wants to add value with his company - both to people and nature. That is why some of the cocoa even comes to the Netherlands by sailing boat. 'The arrival is a bit less predictable, but we don't mind that.' At Norandino they are happy with Chocolatemakers as a customer, says Santiago: 'Our working relationship is based on friendship and trust; Together we show that sustainable entrepreneurship is indeed possible.'

The fact that more and more buyers are willing to pay a fair price for cocoa has a direct effect on the lives of thousands of Peruvians. ‘Our farmers now live in better houses and the majority of their children go to school; the first doctors, teachers and engineers have now graduated,’ says César. ‘Many families now lead a more dignified existence.’

For Lygia, Norandino's working method is an important reference for other cooperatives. 'Before the start of each new program, we discuss which impact results we aim for and how we make them measurable. We are in constant discussion and make adjustments where necessary. And we have been doing this since we started working together in 2014. Norandino continues to continuously look for improvement. We have already achieved a lot together, but there are still plenty of challenges that we want to tackle in the future.’