For its chocolate from São Tomé, Nao buys 50% of its beans from CECAQ-11 (Cooperativa de Exportação de Cacau de Qualidade; Quality Cacao Export Cooperative) and 50% from Satocao. The intention is to ultimately increase the percentage of beans that are bought from the cooperative.
CECAQ-11 is a cooperative made up of 20 farmer family communities. Every community manages a piece of land measuring one or two hectares in size.
Carte des 20 communautés de producteurs de chocolat qui font partie de la coopérative CECAQ.
Approximately 1000 people currently work for the cooperative (including 405 women).
Dernier triage des fèves à la coopérative avant l’envoi en Belgique
Thirty-two amongst them fulfil a role related to supervision, quality control and training. It is a cooperative that has been organised extremely well.
Marllo, Jean Louis, Arbrosio and Atanas at the offices of the CECAQ cooperative.
The cooperative was set up in 2009 involving 11 communities, but this cooperative is now flourishing with 20 communities and produced more than 600 tonnes of cocoa in 2021 (compared to 60 tonnes when it was set up in 2009).
The CECAQ is therefore an important player in the export of cocoa in São Tomé; the island produces a total of approx. 3000 tonnes/year (of which 98% goes straight to Europe). Now, the cooperative wishes to further develop by improving its production and not by including new communities.
What are the CECAQ certifications?
- 2010: Fairtrade label (fair trade certification)
- 2013: Organic certification
- 2018: Naturland label (good ecological practices)
