January 2023

Second impact report by ALDI, Fairtrade and ECAMOM shows increased Fairtrade sales, more farmers in organic certification and promising opportunities for future collaboration

The ALDI SOUTH Group, Fairtrade and the Fairtrade cocoa cooperative ECAMOM, have published the second report on their strategic collaboration during 2021/22. The report provides insights into the organisation’s work, challenges, and strategies towards improving the working conditions and livelihoods of local cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire.

© Fairtrade / Mohamed Aly Diabaté

Based on the alliance with Fairtrade and ALDI, ECAMOM has been collecting data according to specific KPIs. Through this second impact report, we can now see the first results of the long-term partnership.

Key results 2021/2022

GPS mapping:

Experts have been able to map all 3,930 farms involved in the project.

Sales:

Fairtrade cocoa sales have increased from 1,547 metric tons (MT) in 2019/20 to 2,717 MT in 2021/22, raising the ratio of Fairtrade sales from 20% to 38%.

Additional certifications:

At the start of the partnership in 2020, only 12 farmers were applying for organic certification. There are now 216 farmers following this process.

Training:

Fairtrade Africa offered 12 different training topics to 366 participants of which 105 were female. ECAMOM also ran training which reached more than 2000 members of which 51% were female.

As an additional element of the partnership, ALDI’s business partner (Storck) sources a significant share of cocoa from ECAMOM, which is used for ‘Moser Roth’ Fairtrade certified chocolate bars under mass balance. This commitment helps the cooperative to plan and invest further.

ALDI visited ECAMOM in October 2022 together with Fairtrade Africa and Fairtrade Germany. In addition to visiting the farms and communities, it was a great opportunity to share open questions and discuss possible future collaborations face-to-face.

In 2023, ALDI plans to continue the existing partnership and evaluate if any further projects can be developed based on the report.