Cooperative profile · Ivory Coast
Bondoukou Cocoa Collective
Small-batch fair-trade cocoa butter from a grower collective near Bondoukou, north-eastern Ivory Coast. Stone-pressed, unrefined, paired with our other West African ingredients for soap-makers and formulators.
Members
~95 grower households
Region
Bondoukou, Zanzan
Product
Stone-pressed cocoa butter
Certification
Fair-trade, organic in transition
Premium paid
+19% above gate
The collective
The Bondoukou Cocoa Collective is a fair-trade certified collective of around 95 grower households in north-eastern Ivory Coast, a few hours’ drive from Bondoukou. Plots are small and shaded, most members keep cocoa under canopy alongside food crops, which protects soil and reduces pressure to expand into forest. The collective is currently in transition to organic certification.
Their process
Pods are split, fermented in covered wooden boxes for five to seven days, sun-dried on raised mats. The fermented and dried beans are roasted lightly, winnowed, and stone-pressed at the collective’s shared press house. The result is unrefined, unbleached cocoa butter, pale ivory, with a clear cocoa-and-cream aroma.
What our partnership looks like
- 19 percent above the regional gate price (on top of the fair-trade floor).
- Pre-finance at fermentation start.
- Organic transition co-funded, soil testing, training, certification fees.
- Press maintenance contract co-funded annually.
- Direct shipping from Abidjan to Albuquerque.
How we audit
Fair-trade body audits the collective annually. Every shipment includes per-batch CoA covering free fatty acid, peroxide value, melt point, heavy metals and microbial. We re-test the first lot of each season in a US-side lab.