Direct Trade is a concept that started with coffee and has been extending to cocoa for some years now.

It is about having a direct commercial relationship with those who produce, purchasing directly, without having to deal with the famous "intermediaries" or "brokers".

By adopting this approach, the buyer establishes a direct relationship with the producer.

In our case, we are producers ourselves , but we also buy from other producer friends, establishing direct relationships.

We talk, we chat on WhatsApp, we laugh, and we make precious alliances, we send each other photos and videos "look, we made chocolate with your cocoa and it's delicious"; or: "we just finished installing the new drying nets: what do you think?".

We buy cocoa at a price that is 3-4 times higher than the “Fair-Trade” price, to give a more concrete reference. And this price is directly recognized to the producer. We are proud of it, but we would like to do more.

With this approach, we handle both export and import independently. This is how we are structuring our Italian-Salvadoran supply chain.

Opting for direct trade is not easy at all. It is expensive, since, especially at the beginning, filling a whole container with cocoa is not always economically viable. The maritime costs are however considerable, not counting the internal transport from finca to finca, and up to the port of exit. As well as the arrival in Sardinia LOL. It is necessary to count on economic resources, immediate cash-flow, not to mention the difficulties in exporting from the country of origin and in importing (documentation, permits, certificates, local and maritime transport, policies, contracts, etc.).

We have been doing it since we started, facing a thousand difficulties; but there is nothing more exciting than preparing a container that leaves from El Salvador and arrives to Olbia, knowing that it was the fruit of our work, possible thanks to people like you who support projects like ours, giving us your esteem and trust.

Just to clarify: we use a hybrid system. From El Salvador, trade is directed by 4 different fincas. From Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, even though we know the cooperatives, we rely on a specialty cocoa intermediary, whom we trust, who allows us to have these origins as well, until we have the opportunity to consolidate everything in a single Central American country for export. Sometimes the cocoa producers originally also need to sell large volumes and fortunately, there are intermediaries who know how to recognize their value, but there are very few who do so.

In essence, our supply chain is made up of ourselves, who buy our own cocoa and export-import it, or when we buy from other producers (direct trade) or from intermediaries we trust.

#gocaolove