Care International

You are here: Home :: What we do :: Issues :: Microfinance and markets :: Organic chocolate buys a future ...

Organic chocolate buys a future for tsunami survivors

On the island of Simeulue in Indonesia, one of the areas worst-hit by the tsunami, crops were destroyed and fields salinated, leaving many unusable.

Adrimansyahs farm was wiped out in the tsunami but working with CARE he hopes to sell organic cocoa from his small communal farm to producers in Europe

Adrimansyah’s farm was wiped out, but he has big hopes for the future. Working with CARE, he wants to sell organic cocoa from his small communal farm to producers in Europe.

Adrimansyah, 54, loves chocolate. He tried it for the first time only a year ago, but today he’s banking on the world’s love of organic chocolate to improve his and his family’s lives.

Before the tsunami, cocoa farmers on Simeulue sold their crops in Sinabang, the main town on one of the poorest Indonesian islands. The price is less than 50 pence per kilo for regular cocoa; the price for organic cocoa is twice that.

“We can’t even buy chocolate in our village,” Adrimansyah said with a smile, “but we can grow cocoa.”

CARE is working with farmers like Adrimansyah to re-establish their farms and teach them how to grow organic crops, increase their yields and work together to improve agricultural techniques.

Many farmers, who used to grow a single crop and harvest just enough to feed their families, are learning to diversify their crops, so if one crop fails, they can harvest the other.

CARE encourages tsunami survivors to form groups to learn together, help each other with problems, share knowledge, and pool their resources. Each group also together saves a small amount of money each month; members can borrow from this fund to buy household items, pay medical bills, or to reinvest in their farms by buying new tools or extra seeds.

CARE also trains farmers to make organic compost out of local materials, such as buffalo manure and leaves. As well as being environmentally friendly, the compost is cheaper than chemical fertilizers many farmers here used before, and farmers don’t have to make the expensive journey to town to buy it – they can make it themselves.

“With an organic product, CARE’s ultimate goal for cocoa farmers’ groups, like Adrimansyah’s, is to establish a partnership with a European wholesaler to buy the tsunami cocoa”, said Akhmad Arif, CARE’s livelihoods specialist. “We are helping to ensure the new cocoa farms meet international organic or fair trade label standards.

Adrimansyah’s group is planting 10,000 new cocoa plants this year, along with other cash crops. With their increased profits, the people in the group plan to reinvest some of the money into their farms to plant 16,000 plants next year to increase their yield. For Adrimansyah and his friends, it means a brighter future.

“We could even use some of our profit to buy chocolate for ourselves,” Adrimansyah said, then laughed as he saw his young daughter’s eyes light up at his words. “You can see that everybody here loves chocolate.”