Biolands
Partnering with farmers to produce high-quality organic cocoa in a sustainable, responsible way
- Certified organic cocoa
- Quality grade
- Unique flavor characteristics
- Full traceability of every bag of cocoa sold by 20,000 participating farmers
- Business model based on cooperation, trust and transparency
- Treeplanting project in 2008 helped to rejuvenate farms of 3,000 farmers with 250,000 cocoa trees and 10,000 shade trees
- IMO Social and Fair Trade Certification (“Fair for Life”) that validates fair labor practices and conditions
Biolands is Africa’s largest exporter of certified organic cocoa. Since 1999 Biolands has been working directly with local farmers in the district of Kyela, Mbeya region, to increase production, improve the quality of cocoa, and ensure that farmers receive fair prices relative to the world market price. Today, some 20,000 smallholder cocoa farmers in more than 130 villages participate in the Biolands program.
The Biolands enterprise is one of the largest organic smallholder cocoa programs in the world. The first crop of certified organic cocoa was shipped in 2000, and since then approximately 12,500 tonnes have been produced.
The Biolands approach
- Biolands provides training in sustainable agricultural practices, technical advice, supplies of seedlings and pruning equipment to smallholder cocoa farmers
- Biolands promotes biodiversity of food and tree crops in addition to cocoa
- Biolands pays the farmer directly and pays in cash its advertised price
- Biolands pays for the weight delivered (scales are calibrated annually by the government)
- Biolands pays the same advertised price across the region, no matter how remote
- Each bag of Biolands cocoa can be traced to the farmers who produced it
- Cocoa is collected and brought to the Biolands warehouse where the quality is checked and the cocoa is prepared for export
- Biolands staff are local. The company offers full-time, part-time or seasonal employment opportunities to about 300 people
The impact
“When I joined Biolands, my house was only roofed with grass. Now I have managed to roof it with iron sheet, so I can give my family better shelter against rain. I have been able to manage the education for my children. They all go to school, some in primary and some in secondary school.”
– Mwakisaje, Biolands cocoa farmer
“I get money from cocoa and from my rice field. Through that I am able to pay the school fees, do some construction and I also have money to buy new fields and money to pay casual labor to help me out working in the paddy field.”
– Andende Kisasadi, Biolands cocoa farmer
“I have achieved a lot since I started working with Biolands in 2000. I have managed to build a house…In 2005 I bought a small car. I have also managed to pay school fees for the children, three of them in secondary school and two of them in primary school. All these benefits come from the regular income I make with Biolands.”
– Bruno Mwakalyobi, Biolands field supervisor
“Biolands’ vision is to combine the positive social impact of a cooperative with the efficiency of a private company management. After 11 years in the cooperative movement in Tanzania, I saw the difficulties many cooperatives were struggling with, like slow decision making, staff underpayment, lack of transparency, lack of marketing strategy. With Biolands, this disadvantage was removed. We took on board all the advantages of the cooperative movement, like direct reach to the farmers, no middlemen, second payment to farmers delivered every six months if there is profit, and assistance to farmers to increase production and quality. The farmers’ response indicates to us that we have achieved most of our goals.”
– Eric Smeets, Biolands founder
