Cocoa farmer Justino Peck from the Toledo Cacao Growers Association
'Fairtrade means we can save for the future and educate our children'
For the last 15 years, Justino Peck’s cocoa beans have gone into Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate, one of the first products to get the FAIRTRADE Mark in 1994.
Justino is the chairman of the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association, the organisation that represents more than 1,000 smallholder cacao farmers in the Toledo region of Southern Belize.
For Justino, 15 years of Fairtrade has meant the chance to educate a community and make life better for cocoa growers and their children. Justino says: ‘For the farmers, Fairtrade means the security of knowing that they will be paid a set price for their cocoa. If not for the Fairtrade deal, a lot of farmers would have moved away, breaking up families and communities, to earn a living doing something else.’
Green & Black’s buy all the Fairtrade certified cocoa that TCGA produce. Five years ago, the Department for International Development gave TCGA a grant of £250,000. The money was used to help improve farming practices, rehabilitate hurricane damaged crops, plant more cocoa trees (over 1 million) and train farmers in better growing practices.
Justino says the most important source of income for investment in the community has been the Fairtrade premium. ‘We have used the Fairtrade premium for scholarships for children to further their education and to support a school within the cocoa farming community. This year the association supported nine children through high school,’ he says.
Justino lives with his family in a small house in the village of San Jose, 30 miles south of Punta Gorda, Belize. He started growing cocoa in the early 1980s and joined the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association, the newly formed farmers’ group.
Over the last 15 years the number of members has swelled and gone from just over 200 to today’s total of more than 1,000. Acreage of land on which the cocoa is grown has also increased to around 3,000 acres which has seen their production grow significantly.
Justino’s aspirations for his future revolve around his children. He says: ‘They say the key to success is education. We want to provide the education necessary for our children to succeed.’