Caribbean Export 2021 Annual Report FINAL

SUCCESS STORY

CHOCOLALA: CREATING JOBS FROM COCOA BALLS

In the community of Las Lajas, in the Dominican Republic, five women, at the time belonging to the now defunct Ana Idalia Navarro Mothers’ Club, agreed to seek ways of generating income without having to be employed. Silvia García, Benita Canela, Milagros Marte, France Altagracia Capellán and Ana Cecilia García, decided in 1990 to sell handcrafted chocolate balls door to door. Fast forward to 2021 their business Chocolala is participating in the Caribbean Export Binational Cocoa/ChocolateValue Chains Project and recently received a vertical powder packing machine as part of the financial assistance under the project. The company also received technical assistance to achieve public health regulations and seven different certifications for the Dominican Republic allowing national distribution of their products in supermarkets Their improved efficiency in the packing process and measurements combined with technical assistance in business processes such as exports recording has ultimately improved their competitiveness. It has also enabled them to respond to the growing demand for their products from the retail sector. With two new supermarkets and a boost in retail sales, Chocolala has hired five more permanent employees taking them to 20 employees (16 women and 4 men). The initiative of those five women who dreamed of a livelihood within their community 30 years ago is now a consolidated company that has drawn more than an exclamation of surprise from the unbelievers who only saw illusions during the years of hard work. These aspirations today are the building blocks in which an average of 24 quintals (2.4 tons) of cocoa are processed weekly to produce products, the raw material being brought from community producers. Previously, they did not exceed more than two quintals per week. The women of Chocolala responded with creativity and with the right attitude to the lack of opportunities in a rural community. Now, with the support and technical consultancy of Caribbean Export and allies such as the European Union, Chocolala has a firm eye on the export trade and tourism with their Ecological Trail, a space where visitors encounter the cocoa plantations and the natural attractions of the area. This undertaking has also created new sources of work. “Before Chocolala, the only option we had was to work in family homes, doing domestic work in Santiago and Puerto Plata, away from our children. Now we work here, we take money home without being away,” says Nelfi García, the general manager.

Annual Results Report - 2021 | Building Business, Transforming Lives for a Resilient Caribbean 47