FairTrade Access Fund (FAF), an affiliate of German NGO Fairtrade International that provides loans to farmers in developing countries, recently announced that it has issued a trade finance loan of EUR 750,000 (USD 931,000) to Ecookim, a union of cooperatives based in Cote d’Ivoire, to support the purchase of cocoa beans from 3,700 local suppliers in Central and Western Cote d’Ivoire. The loan is expected to increase Ecookim’s production and exports of fairtrade cocoa as well as to support its organizational growth.
Since 2013, Ecookim’s members have grown from producing 7,500 metric tons cocoa produced and sold in 2013 to 22,000 metric tons as of September 2014.
As of 2014, Fairtrade Access Fund has disbursed USD 10 million in loans to cooperatives in Latin America and Africa. As of September 2014, Ecookim had 23 cooperative members and 12,000 producers with a total of 41,000 hectares of cocoa and 7,500 hectares of cashew.
By Simon Pfanner, Research Associate
About Fairtrade Access Fund
Fairtrade Access Fund was launched in 2012 by Fairtrade International, a nonprofit based in Bonn, Germany; the Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit; and Incofin Investment Management, a Belgian for-profit microfinance investment manager. As of 2014, the fund has disbursed USD 10 million in loans to cooperatives in Latin America and Africa.
About Ecookim
Ecookim was founded in 2004 as a union of cooperatives from the coffee-cocoa sector in Cote d’Ivoire. It has been exporting cocoa since fiscal year 2005-2006 and is certified fairtrade as of 2010. The organization mainly works with smallholder farmers that own less than five hectares of land. As of September 2014, Ecookim had 23 cooperative members and 12,000 producers with a total of 41,000 hectares of cocoa and 7,500 hectares of cashew.
Sources and Additional Resources
[1] Incofin News, Fairtrade Access Fund reaches new milestone making its first investment in Africa
MicroCapital, July 9, 2013, Fairtrade Access Fund Loans $1.8m to Coffee, Cacao, Sugar Cooperatives COAGRICSAL of Honduras, UCOSEMUN of Nicaragua, NORANDINO of Peru
MicroCapital, June 11, 2012, Fairtrade, Incofin Launch Fund Offering Long-Term Microloans Starting in Latin America
MicroCapital Universe Profile: Fairtrade Access Fund
MicroCapital Universe Profile: Ecookim
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