What to know about this Lending Partner
Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.
Status Update- March 23rd, 2023
Kiva and Uncommon Cacao have agreed to end their partnership after nearly 5 years and more than $130,000 in loans raised. This partner has repaid its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank Uncommon Cacao for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.
Partner description:
Uncommon Cacao is a social enterprise based in the United States that operates in Belize, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Colombia. Uncommon Cacao is a bean to bar supply chain company, that ensures chocolate makers stable access to quality cacao beans that are ethically and transparently sourced.
To source cacao for chocolate makers, Uncommon Cacao works directly with farmers, smallholder farmer groups and responsible exporters. However, the company’s value proposition is not limited to just sourcing high-quality cacao, but also includes providing chocolate makers with complete transparency around origin and farmer pricing, as well as social impact data.
A unique lending approach:
Uncommon Cacao uses Kiva financing to offer short term loans to 3 major borrowers: producers, smallholder associations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Producers will use the loan to purchase inputs, smallholder associations will use the loans to purchase cacao from farmers or invest in processing equipment and SMEs will use the loans to provide extension services to farmers or to invest in processing and storage facilities.