Visiting our Customers in West Africa: SOCODD and Socak Katana

Our colleague Grace has shared an exciting update from her recent monitoring visits in Ivory Coast, where she met with several cocoa co-operatives we are supporting with finance.

Grace said: 

"Despite facing challenges in cocoa collection due to unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change, our dedicated partners have successfully completed half of their projected 15,000MT orders for the 2023-2024 season!"

Socak Katana, a cocoa co-operative based in north-west Ivory Coast with over 2,500 members, was Grace's first destination. Mamadou Savane, the co-operative's Managing Director, shared valuable insights with Grace on how irregular rainfall since June 2023 has impacted cocoa production. 

Grace told us:

 "Their resilience and commitment are commendable, and we're optimistic that they will fulfil the remaining orders by June 2024 during the minor season." 

Socak Katana have been a Shared Interest customer since 2017. From 2016 to 2021, their production grew from 1,888 metric tonnes to 15,000 metric tonnes. In late November 2022, the co-operative utilised our finance to pre-finance an order from their main buyer, Ecom Agrotrade.

Next, Grace visited SOCODD (Société Coopérative Dialogue de Djékanou), a cocoa co-operative based in central Ivory Coast which supports 3,795 members. SOCODD was founded in 2010 by 150 producers from three villages, who decided to come together with a shared vision of improving livelihoods for farmers.

Shared Interest first provided SOCODD with an export credit facility in 2017 and the following year, we provided further support to increase production and purchase more cocoa from their members. In 2019, we helped finance their diversification into cashew nuts and in 2020, they received a Fairtrade trader certification in addition to the original Fairtrade certification they received in 2015.

Grace said: 

"SOCODD have executed 70% of their export and local contracts thanks to our early disbursements. Cocoa is pensive, and they are now purchasing 1500xof/kg instead of the 1000xof/kg farm gate price." 

(xof: West African Franc).