Giving SPP Fair Trade a boost in West Africa: 2021–2023 Project Achievements

Between 2021 and 2023, SPP Global executed the project: “Giving SPP a boost in West Africa”, as coordinated by Commerce Équitable France (CEF) and Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders (AVSF), with funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Facility Global Environment (FFEM).

AFD, project funder, has recognized SPP Global’s ability to design and successfully execute initiatives aimed at strengthening small producer organizations. Currently, this institution is supporting the “Great Coffees grown by Chiapas Small Producers”, project, making sure to capitalize on lessons learned from our experience in West Africa, namely when it comes to building collective action mechanisms to improve all coffee value chain stages.

West Africa project goals:

• Open up new markets for the products of SPP Fair Trade certified small farmer co-ops in the region.
• Create a regional SPP network to support member organizations and encourage new co-ops to join and get certified.

Results obtained:

Critical support for participation in trade shows and meetings with interested buyers. Major events where active participation was accomplished included: NATEXPO, Salon du Chocolat, Biofach and a trade promotion event organized by Biopartenaire, with whom a strategic partnership was created as part of project implementation.

• New contracts with buyers were successfully signed.
• Visits to SPP network organizations and other co-ops and organizations interested in SPP.
• Target audiences were trained on the SPP system and priority topics such as organic exports.
• Participatory diagnostics by organization.
• Collaboration with national fair trade platforms and organic producer networks.
• Participation in key events in Burkina Faso and Ghana with more than 330 attendees.
• Promotion messaging and activities at events in Lomé and Cotonou.
• Documents needed for organic export were compiled into a list.
• Target audiences were trained to use “My SPP Market” (SPP-powered digital marketplace) for direct contact with buyers.
• Sales one-pagers were created to promote 6 cooperatives.
• List of potential buyers and planning for future connections.
• All-day-long promotion events in Bobo-Dioulasso, Kumasi and Abidjan.

Participating organizations were able to access new markets for organic products and increase their SPP product sales by up to 200%.

Indicators:

• 77% average increase in total sales made to new clients.
• Number of SPP certified organizations in the region increased from 4 to 6.
• Creation of a list with 20 organizations potentially interested in joining SPP.

Results to action, as stated by core project agents

During the SPP promotion event in Côte d’Ivoire, the General Manager of the CAMAYE cooperative shared a powerful testimonial about the tangible benefits of the SPP system for small producers:

“In 2021, CAMAYE was really happy to be able to team up with ETHIQUABLE thanks to our SPP certification. Ethiquable signed a contract for two containers, a total of 50 tons of organic cocoa, with CAMAYE – at a price of 1850 F CFA per kg. The cooperatives present during the event made a quick calculation and estimated that those 50 tons sold at 1850 F CFA generated a somewhat 25 million F CFA for producers and CAMAYE, which is equivalent to selling 715 tons of conventional cocoa at 935 F CFA per kg under the RainForest Alliance system. All in all, producers get paid better via the SPP system. The SPP Minimum Price is clearly advantageous for Small Producers. After these touching words, many cooperatives began to contact CAMAYE and the SPP Representative in West Africa willing to join the SPP system, which CAMAYE’s GM dubbed as the system that represents organized Small Producers’ pride.”

Lessons learned…

This project confirmed that SPP’s values resonate deeply with small producers in West Africa. However, significant challenges were also identified:

• Decline in organic markets, which has slowed down new certification processes.
• Communication issues with some cooperatives due to limited connectivity and lack of staff.
• Need to improve product quality to break into more demanding markets.
• Increased demand for training and strengthening actions all over Africa.

Following this valuable experience, greater training needs were detected to strengthen organizations, not only in West Africa, but throughout the continent, and new proposals have been built, to consistently respond to such needs.

Despite the challenges faced, the project in Africa managed to build and consolidate relationships, create meaningful learning and open up new trade routes. At SPP we reaffirm our commitment to managing transformational projects that directly benefit our member organizations, and we deeply appreciate the positive feedback we got as a result of this experience.