wfn.org | UMNS# 05088-Dominican cocoa farmers recover with United Methodist

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Dominican cocoa farmers recover with United Methodist help

Feb. 11, 2005	 News media contact:   Linda  Bloom * (646) 3693759*  New
York {05088}

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.
This story and additional resources are available online at
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=6715.

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - When Hurricane Jeanne struck the Dominican Republic
last September, the resulting damage affected some 1,600 cocoa farmers.

Those farmers - or producers, as they are called by the National
Confederation of Dominican Cocoa Producers - are part of the United
Methodist Committee on Relief's coffee project. The project encourages
people to buy "fair trade" items such as coffee, tea, cocoa and
chocolate. In 2004, United Methodist churches and individuals bought 34
tons of products through Equal Exchange, which markets fair trade items.

A $10,000 grant from UMCOR, along with a similar contribution from Equal
Exchange, helped the producers recover from the hurricane, according to
Abel Fernandes, a manager with the cocoa producers confederation.

Founded in 1988, the confederation links 9,000 small producers through
nine regional departments that serve 400 base associations.

"Typically, when natural disasters like this hit our country, the entire
infrastructure of production is affected," Fernandes told United
Methodist News Service, speaking through a translator.

The hurricane, which killed at least 18 people in the Dominican
Republic, also damaged fruit trees and other crops that sustain the
population.

Without assistance from UMCOR, the affected farmers would have had to
sell their labor to larger producers for immediate cash to buy food
rather than clean up their own damaged cocoa crops, Fernandes said.

The confederation decided the best use for the grants was "to convert
that money immediately into food," to allow the producers to look after
their own crops, he explained. The food was distributed through regional
offices and their associations.

Fernandes, who was in New York on Feb. 9 on the first stop of a 12-day
North American tour, presented a large Valentine's heart to June Kim,
organizer of the UMCOR Coffee Project, as a token of thanks to United
Methodists.

Through the confederation, small cocoa producers in the Dominican
Republic have increased the quality of their products - to the point
where 30 percent of the country's cocoa is now fermented for use in fine
chocolate. They also specialize in organic chocolate. "We have become
the primary producer of organic chocolate worldwide," he said.

"One of our greatest accomplishments was receiving the official fair
trade certification," Fernandes added.

Internationally recognized fair trade standards require paying a fair
price to farmers, including a guaranteed minimum when market prices are
low; working directly with certified, democratically run farming
cooperatives; and encouraging ecologically sustainable farming
practices.

About 10 percent of the yearly output of 12,000 tons of cocoa is sold
under fair trade certification, and the money "is invested in developing
social projects in the communities where the producers live," he
reported.

Those projects include dispatching mobile medical vans, staffing rural
medical clinics, creating small plant nurseries, digging wells in
communities with no potable water, and providing assistance for students
and schools.

Launched in 2002, the UMCOR Coffee Project encourages local
congregations and individual members to buy and serve fairly traded
coffee, tea and cocoa; design fundraising projects using those items;
and organize forums to discuss fair trade issues.

According to information from Alison Booth, the interfaith food-service
coordinator for Equal Exchange, United Methodist orders of fair trade
products increased from 13 tons in 2003 to 34 tons in 2004. Participants
included 1,098 churches and 78 individuals. As of February, 283 churches
and 11 individuals have participated in 2005.

Equal Exchange also has formal partnerships with Lutheran World Relief,
the Presbyterian Church USA, the Unitarian Universalist Service
Committee, the American Friends Service Committee, the Church of the
Brethren, the Mennonite Central Committee and Catholic Relief Services.

 More information can be found at
http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/hunger/coffee.cfm online.

# # #

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
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http://umns.umc.org