CECAO

Ecuador

CECAO

Classic Nacional Ecuador flavor profile with high impact and traceability. These beans are both Fair for Life and organic certified.

CECAO is based in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with operations across south central Ecuador through their 10 community-based member associations that comprise a network of over 1,800 producers.

Through the CECAO Foundation, all associations receive technical assistance and additional services. CECAO works closely with its producer network to focus on productivity of farms, quality of post-harvest, and intercropping of other fruit species for ecological and economic diversity. CECAO is committed to paying farmers fair prices, improving cacao productivity, maintaining high quality and consistency, at high volumes. Each association has their own managers who are responsible for traceability, producer network and relations, buying, and post harvest. Each association has its own centralized fermentation and drying facility that processes all of the producer network’s cacao in that region. CECAO pre-finances 100% of the associations, which provides the working capital that the associations use to buy from producers. In return, the associations sell exclusively to CECAO. There are 1,806 registered producers across the network, of which nearly 20% are women.

Download 2024 CECAO Transparent Trade Data

CECAO is based in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with operations across south central Ecuador through their 10 community-based member associations that comprise a network of over 1,800 producers.

Through the CECAO Foundation, all associations receive technical assistance and additional services. CECAO works closely with its producer network to focus on productivity of farms, quality of post-harvest, and intercropping of other fruit species for ecological and economic diversity. CECAO is committed to paying farmers fair prices, improving cacao productivity, maintaining high quality and consistency, at high volumes. Each association has their own managers who are responsible for traceability, producer network and relations, buying, and post harvest. Each association has its own centralized fermentation and drying facility that processes all of the producer network’s cacao in that region. CECAO pre-finances 100% of the associations, which provides the working capital that the associations use to buy from producers. In return, the associations sell exclusively to CECAO. There are 1,806 registered producers across the network, of which nearly 20% are women.

Download 2024 CECAO Transparent Trade Data

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2024 CECAO Farmgate price

$7.62 USD

This is the actual price paid to the cacao producer for their product (typically on a per kg or per lb basis) when they sell it to the first buyer.

Farmgate price is often paid for "wet" or fresh cacao, recently harvested and scooped out of cracked pods for sale. Wet cacao loses 60-70% of its weight during fermentation and drying, typically reaching 7-8% humidity before it is sold.

Uncommon calculates farmgate price for each cacao supplier based on the specific weight loss conversion percentage provided to us by the supplier, and we report farmgate price on a per kg dried equivalent basis for all cacao beans we source.

Pictured is Estella Dutan Barerra on her farm.

2024 CECAO Association price

$7.84 USD

This is the price the exporter pays the association for cacao.

In some cases in our supply chain there is an organized group of producers that aggregate cacao and sell it to an exporter.

2024 CECAO FOB price

$7.59 USD

This is the price paid by Uncommon to our partners for cacao transported and loaded onto a ship for export.

Uncommon then covers all of the costs of shipping, freight charges, insurance, import, domestic logistics, warehouse ingestion, customs and duties.

Free on board (FOB) is an international shipping term that represents the seller's responsibility for bringing the cacao over the rails of the export ship.

2024 CECAO Average sales price

$10.46 USD

This is the weighted average price per kg for cacao sold to the premium & ultra premium chocolate makers who purchased it during this year from Uncommon Cacao.