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ECAM is one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most socially and environmentally committed cocoa cooperatives. SIDI has been working with this cooperative since 2015 and has greatly supported its development. ECAM collects cocoa beans, packages them and sells them locally to European exporters such as OCEAN. The cooperative mainly sells its volumes under fair trade or Rainforest Alliance certification, and is increasingly expanding into the organic sector.
Côte d’Ivoire is by far the most dynamic and best managed French-speaking country in sub-Saharan Africa. In many respects (infrastructure, agri-food, health, education) and despite criticism of favouritism or lack of inclusion, the country is considered to be a model of economic development, under the leadership of Alassane Ouattara, in office since 2010. State support for agricultural sectors is very high and is beginning to prove its worth, particularly in agro-industrial processing (cashew, rubber, cotton), and negotiations on cocoa are increasingly intense with the multinationals.
The cooperative has 3,000 members, mainly cocoa producers, but it is also expanding into rubber and oil palm in order to diversify the sources of income for producers and the cooperative and to have cash inflows at different times. SIDI’s ongoing support will undoubtedly strengthen the financial foundations of the organisation and enable it to continue to develop.
