B U R K I N A F AS O UNION DES GROUPEMENTS DES PRODUCTRICES DES PRO DUITS DE KARITÉ Created in January 2001, the Union des Groupements des Productrices des Produits de Karité de la province de la Sissili-Ziro (UGPPK/SZ) is a group of 2,300 women who have organised themselves into a cooperative in 38 Burkina Faso villages located near the Ghana border. The first shea butter producers organisation to be awarded fair trade certification from FLO-International, in 2006, the Union des Groupements des Productrices des Produits de Karité de la province de la Sissili-Ziro was also certified organic by Bio d’Ecocert for its shea butter in 2008. Most of the shea butter produced is sold through fair trade networks. Export volumes (to France and Canada, primarily) have increased from five tonnes in 2001 to 95 tonnes in 2007. The UGPPK/SZ’s main customers are Occitane, Alter Eco, Thémis, Nature et Vie, Sophim and Ten Thousand Villages. In this country, one of the poorest in the world, fair trade is a real economic and development investment that provides a large part of the rural population with significant revenues. The resources acquired thanks to the fair prices paid by fair trade networks have enabled the Union to implement many development projects. Nearly 1,800 women have been trained in traditional shea butter gathering and churning techniques. In addition, since its creation, the Union has been carrying out literacy activities (over 200 women have benefited) and fighting HIV/AIDS through family awareness-raising campaigns and the distribution of school materials to children who have contracted the virus.
TO FIND OUT MORE: www.afriquekarite.com
PERU COOPERATIVA AGRARIA CAFETALERA VELLE RIO APURIMAC Founded in 1969, the Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Velle Rio Apurimac (CACVRA) is a cooperative organisation directed and managed by the workers of the sector which brings together nearly 3,700 cocoa and coffee farmers located in the Ayacucho region of Peru, a valley near Brazil. Organised as a cooperative, this federation consists of small farms that grow cocoa and coffee using traditional methods that respect the environment. Hit hard by the economic crises that have battered the region since the 1980s, then by fighting between the army and Shining Path guerrillas, the cooperative’s
farmers
received
assistance
from
the
United
Nations
Development Programme in 1995 and support from international foundations that enabled them to reorganise production and obtain fair trade certification from FLO-International in 2004.
The inclusion of CACVRA in fair trade channels has especially helped to guarantee that sales prices for cocoa and coffee are much higher than production costs and have enabled the implementation of social projects, in particular, literacy and training for women.
TO FIND OUT MORE: www.cacvra.com - 32 -