With today's technology, some electricity, mud bricks and clay mortar we can make chocolate together here in the forest. Crowdfunding participants become actual cooperative owners and are welcome to visit their factory when it is built and sell our chocolate.
Help us build our own cooperative chocolate factory starting in 2022, become a co-owner!
The De'Aruhuä Indigenous Chocolate Cooperative plans to provide expertly produced Pure Organic Wild (POW) chocolate bars with the best of our premium cocoa beans from a state-of-the-art batch production kitchen (factory) which we are projecting to build for 2023/24 under an international cooperation and management program focused on environmental protection, provisioning ecosystem services and forming economic sustainability with indigenous forest farmers from 13 villages.
The factory will produce 20+ tons of fine aromatic organic nutrient-rich superfood chocolate per year using our special recipes that include exotic and rare jungle fruits. The factory and the chocolate produced there will bear the name "De'Aruhuä Indigenous Chocolate," made from Piaroa Organic Wild (POW) Cacao and other Indigenous Cacaos.
We have some unique recipes and variations to offer using rare forest fruits, medicinal plants, melipona honey, seeds, spices, vegetables and other natural foods exclusively from our forests, many call them superfoods because of their high nutritional value.
Our factory will be located in the Ekobius Ecovillage, Venezuela where we have lots of support from chocolate industry professionals and experts that live there, the factory will be designed scaleable to produce from 80,000-500,000 chocolate bars per year. The chocolate will be sold internationally from the offshore cooperative foundation that we are forming in Colombia with Ecology Crossroads as our international sponsor who will purchase our chocolate using US dollars. Ecology Crossroads through Globcal International members are responsible for receiving and marketing the first 500,000 chocolate bars we produce over 3-5 years.
The cost of the business plan for the factory, equipment, supplies, machinery, labor, real estate and all the materials for two full years is $1,490,000 USD. Additionally the program seeks to raise $450,000 in matching grants to membership funding for improvements in Piaroa villages and to provide agroecology educational programs. Additional funding may be sought to develop ecotourism accommodations.
The De'Aruhuä Cooperative & Trust is being developed to provide a secure source of funding for the indigenous Piaroa of communities on the Catañiapo, Cuao and Alta Paraguaza rivers for their production of cacao, cupuacu and non-wood forest harvests by facilitating us to make our own chocolate bars with a state-of-the-art small-batch production factory.
The project is being organized by Globcal International as a United Nations SDG Action Campaign and targets 12 of 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs; the project is newsworthy and deserves recognition in the areas of environmental protection, indigenous rights, sustainability, alleviating poverty, human rights, equality and women's empowerment.
A cooperative legal formation for the De'Aruhuä social enterprise will be in the neutral offshore jurisdiction of Belize will be overseen by Globcal International to form an fiduciary trust with Ecology Crossroads for the Piaroa so they may transparently access the global market free of corruption, discrimination and impropriety; rights that they possess under the United Nations, Private International Law, Maritime Law and their rights under the Vatican, Holy See. The business is being formed to be exempt of customs duties, trade restrictions, and international sanctions because the product is produced by indigenous peoples with a social purpose.
Membership shares have an initial base value of $10 USD in our cooperative, they cost $10 USD each here on our website, they will be sold on Indiegogo for $11 USD each starting in late October of 2022 to offset (crowdfunding) fundraising costs. You can become a full voting member and earn an annual dividend by purchasing 1,000-10,000 shares, or you can become a non-voting cooperative shareholder by purchasing 100 shares or more.
There are a total of 1,000,000 cooperative membership shares available, a person can become a (non-voting member) consumer of the cooperative by purchasing as few as 10 shares for $100 USD which they can redeem for chocolate once we start producing. To become considered an authorized distributor/reseller of our product a person must buy at least 25 shares which is $250 USD.
To be considered a legal shareholder or work as an employee-owner of the cooperative a person must own a minimum of 100 cooperative shares, only those with 100 shares or more are eligible to earn an annual dividend, view the business plan or benefit through purchase agreements from the cooperative production of raw cacao.
Equity Offering: $5,000 | 500 shares of Non-Voting or Voting Stock
Member Offering: $10,000 | 1,000 shares of Voting Common Stock
Min. Investor Offering: $1,100 | 100 shares Non-Voting Subscription
Min. Member Offering: $1,000 | 100 shares Non-Voting Membership
490,000 shares of Non-Voting Class A Stock valued at $4,900,000
450,000 shares of Voting Member Class B Stock valued at $4,500,000
Non-Voting Class A Preferred Stock - 42 Month, 15% Dividend, 3x Reval Cap
Purchase Price of Security Offered: $11.00
Minimum Investment Amount (per investor): $1,100 USD
Voting Member Class B Common Stock - 5 year Membership Commitment
Purchase Price of Security Offered: $10.00
Minimum Investment Amount (per investor): $1,000 USD
You can purchase 10-1,000 shares here as an investor or a member.
To become a voting (active or inactive) cooperative member, a person should buy 1,000 Class B shares for $10,000 to be recognized as a full 1% voting member in the De'Aruhuä Cooperative & Trust, or they can join as a reserved invested member by purchasing 500 shares for $5,000, reserved invested members will have the ability to purchase 500 more shares to become a 1% voting member using their dues and dividends over 5 years.
Investment Limit: Persons owning 1,000 shares or more all have one (1) equal vote each, no single person may own more than 1,000 membership Class B Shares with no more than 9,000 additional investment Class A Shares, there is a maximum cooperative membership of 100 (active) voting members. Organizations or persons invested with 5,000-10,000 are considered sponsors or founders, but still limited to one person, one vote if conjoined as members.
Investors (as non-members) can subscribe or lease equitable Class A Preferred Shares for $11 each (minimum 100 shares) beginning October 31, 2019 for a potential return of 2x-3x in 42 months plus a 15% dividend compounded annually. These shares represent 49% of all the shares which is consistent with our fundraising goal.