Congolese cocoa waits for peace to pursue sweet future

From www.africanews.com 

"Insecurity in eastern DRC is hindering the potential for cocoa cultivation to open a way for “an agricultural middle class to emerge.” 

Read further 

Gender in Trade for Development Centre projects

Projects in Peru, Congo and Morocco highlight the fact that to turn fair and sustainable trade into a means of leverage in the fight against poverty and inequality reduction – which is the Trade for Development Centre's view – two questions must be kept in mind when approving projects: who does the work when producing goods and who manages the profits once the project boosts revenue?

© Twin

Download the article

Coffee from Kivu: a leverage for development

Coffee culture in South Kivu has been long neglected because of the lasting conflict in East Congo, but in recent years new dynamics have emerged.

With the support of NGOs, fair trade organisations and BTC's Trade for Development Centre two cooperatives enthusiastically pave the road.

Read the article on ISSUU

Coffee from Kivu: a leverage for development

Kivu-coffee: RAEK

The Congolese province of South Kivu is known as a dangerous region where violence and looting are the order of the day. This makes it hard for local coffee growers to manage their coffee plantations or to sell their coffee at a good price.

RAEK (Regroupement des Agriculteurs et Eleveurs de Kabare) was established in 1992. The organisation defends the interests of smallholders in the Kabare territory and supports their value chain activities (production, harvesting, processing and commercialisation). In the spring of 2010 an Oxfam Solidarity team paid RAEK a visit.

The team was impressed with the efforts made by the Congolese organisation to improve the living conditions of its members. And they saw the productive potential of RAEK and the remarkable quality of its coffee beans. Together with Oxfam-Wereldwinkels they started up a project, called “Café du Kivu: Improved revenue and living conditions for farmers and their families through better market access”. This project receives financial support from the Trade for Development Centre.

RAEK

Gourmet Gardens: Congolese fair trade and organic cocoa

The Kivu region is one of the most dangerous places in the world. In this region the Ugandan organisation Gourmet Gardens set up a vanilla and cocoa production chain that is fair trade (Fair for Life) and organic certified in 2005. Le Jardin Bio-Equitable is a local producer organisation that is created especially to meet the certification requirements and to manage the production.

TDC finances a project of Gourmet Gardens that aims to set up a fair trade and organic chain with added value that will provide a sustainable income for some 1500 producers.

Gourmet Gardens

Kivu-coffee: Sopacdi

The Democratic Republic of Congo has not witnessed the same expansion of fair trade as neighbouring countries. This is mainly due to the violence that has thrown the country in a state of unrest.

The situation is changing. In the province of South Kivu, a coffee cooperative, SOPACDI (Solidarité Paysanne pour la Promotion des Actions Café et Développement Intégral), has been involved for many years in an economic and social development process that is based on values of solidarity and sharing. They started buying the crops of its 3000 some members to resell them at a better price and to set up collective development projects. Thanks in particular to the commercial and financial support of Oxfam-Wereldwinkels, SOPACDI has been on track for fair trade certification since 2009.

The Trade for Development Centre finances a project that aims at improving the agricultural production system of the cooperative, consolidating and developing its commercial strength.

Sopacdi

Picture : Oxfam-Wereldwinkels