Our Story

La Siembra was established in 1999 by three young entrepreneurial-minded friends in Ottawa. After working overseas and viewing the exploitative nature of trade on the lives of producers, these three friends decided to provide Canadian consumers with an alternative to conventionally traded products. They bought a small mixing machine, convinced a few folks that they had a worthwhile idea and established a worker-owned co-operative.

From humble beginnings in 1999...

Year 1 was spent in the community kitchen of First United Church – a socially progressive church in Ottawa. As there was no Fair Trade certification system for cocoa-based products at that time, La Siembra’s founders adopted the guidelines of the FTF. They began sourcing cocoa from a co-operative in Costa Rica and sugar from a mill supporting co-operative farmers in Paraguay.

An organic recipe was developed and the founders began to manufacture and distribute a hot chocolate, sugar and cocoa line. This line of Cocoa Camino products was carried by a number of Fair Trade, organic and natural health food accounts keen to support La Siembra’s unique products. This first year generated total sales of $46,000.

In 2002 La Siembra worked with TransFair Canada to develop a certification system for cocoa, chocolate and sugar products in Canada and became the first registered importers of Fair Trade Certified cocoa and sugar in North America.

...to great success today

Growth:

In 2006, La Siembra Co-operative achieved nearly $4 million in sales. We now have 20 dedicated full-time employees in Operations, Finance, New Product Development, Sales, Marketing, Communications & Human Resources.

Products:

The co-op has expanded its product line to include 9 chocolate bars, chocolate minis, 2 flavours of hot chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, 4 flavours of couverture, cocoa mass and cocoa butter.

Premiums to producers:

Fair Trade Certified sales to date have translated into more than $300,000 in above-market Fair Trade and organic premiums paid to cocoa and sugar producers in the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Peru and Costa Rica