Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, on western Ecuador, prepares for the first shipment of fine cocoa for export, after the ILCO finished a negotiation with the transnational Transmar Commodity Group, of Germany. On August 5th of 2015, the ILCO informed that by the end of August and the first week of September, the first 25 tons will be sent to Hamburg. Aracely Montero, CEO of ILCO, stated that another agreement to export 100 tons per month is underway with the German company. The raw material exported passed all the specifications required; before the export was done the cocoa was submitted to a strict verification process.
This cocoa shipment is made during the time when in the province of Tsáchila a plan to break the chain of intermediates that affect the producer is going underway. The iniciative started three years ago with the support and financing of the provincial government and European Union. The budget was of USD 1,6 million. In October 2014 the brand Santo Cocoa was presented as a market strategy to attract the production of farmers at a real cost, this means with the base prices in the market. The project involves 824 farmers integrated in 52 associations. With this business model, they take their cocoa production to a collecting center in Puerto Limón where they receive their payment, according to Jenny Bautista, CEO of Santo Cacao. Santo Domingo has 60131 acres of cocoa plantations, from which 60% correspond to the CCN-51 kind and 40% to fine cocoa.