CECAB — São Tomé's Farmer-Owned Organic Cocoa Cooperative Moves from Raw Beans to Chocolate

The Cooperativa de Produção e Exportação de Cacau Biológico (CECAB) was founded on São Tomé in July 2004 and grew into the island nation's largest cocoa producer, organising roughly 3,000 smallholders across 37–42 associations to farm organic, fair-trade cocoa on the island's volcanic soils. Since 2001, its main export partner has been Kaoka, a French premium organic-chocolate manufacturer, giving members a guaranteed export channel and fair-trade minimum pricing that cushions them from world price shocks.

CECAB pairs this market access with agronomic knowledge transfer led by executive director António da Graça Dias, a former agriculture minister and agronomy professor: modern pruning and pest/disease-resistant cultivars are credited with adding 30–40 years to tree lifespan and improving climate resilience. Output reached 1,650 tonnes in 2021, up roughly 40% on 2020, out of just over 3,000 tonnes produced nationally.

In July 2022, CECAB opened a chocolate factory in Guadalupe, 12 km north of São Tomé city, moving the cooperative beyond raw-bean export into value-added manufacturing. The €450,000–464,000 project was financed roughly 20% by CECAB itself and the remainder by the African Development Bank, with an initial planned capacity of 10 tonnes of chocolate a year.

CECAB's growth has also exposed real constraints: cocoa theft cut production by as much as 40% in one period, and a 2024 change to EU organic-certification rules restricts certification to cooperatives with fewer than 2,000 members — CECAB's roughly 3,100 registered farmers now require the cooperative to restructure to keep its organic export market.

Read the full analysis: https://macaomagazine.net/chocolates-return-to-sao-tome-and-principe/