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ECAM is one of the most socially and environmentally committed cocoa cooperatives in Ivory Coast. SIDI has been working with this cooperative since 2015 and has supported its development. ECAM collects cocoa beans, processes them, and sells them locally to European exporters, such as OCEAN. The cooperative sells the bulk of its volume certified as Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance and is increasingly expanding into the organic sector.
Ivory Coast is by far the most dynamic and best-administered French-speaking country in Sub-Saharan Africa. In many respects (infrastructure, agrifood, health, education) and despite criticisms regarding favoritism or a lack of inclusion, the country is considered a model of economic development. State support in agricultural sectors is significant and is beginning to prove effective, particularly in agro-industrial processing (cashew, rubber, cotton), and negotiations regarding cocoa are becoming increasingly robust with multinational corporations.
The cooperative has 3,000 members, primarily cocoa producers, but it is also expanding into rubber and oil palm cultivation to diversify the income sources for both the producers and the cooperative, as well as to ensure cash flow at different times throughout the year. The ongoing support from SIDI will strengthen the organization’s financial structure to enable its continued growth.
