São Tomé and Príncipe, an island in the Gulf of Guinea, is one of West Africa's smallest cocoa exporters. The country counts only one Fairtrade certified cooperative - CACAQ 11. Certified since 2009, the members have invested the Fairtrade premium in several projects: new cocoa fields have been opened up, clean water and sanitation projects rolled out and storage facilities built.
Last year, the farmers decided to use their premium money to repair a generator. For a long time, farmers had been experiencing frequent power outages. They bought power cables and built a separate generator room. Osvaldo Estevão, a cocoa producer in the cooperative, says: 'Fairtrade is really changing our lives and improving our standard of living.'
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