Background - In the joint transformation efforts from post disaster (the tsunami in 2004 and the earthquake in 2005) and conflict situation
to integrated economic development, a thriving private sector for Aceh is indispensable. But given the sluggish private investment
in the region, receding donor assistance and various infrastructure challenges, the private sector can not fully flourish.
The prevailing bottlenecks constrain development of the Indonesian province in reaching and exploiting the full economic potentials.

Project- Main idea of the project is to standardize and improve the cultivation of cocoa in Aceh. This helps thousands of smallholders to produce in a more competitive way and to increase their income.
This is, why the project PEKA aims to recover the old cocoa cultivation fields and to increase the production. Both measures will improve considerably the quality of the final product.
Furthermore, Swisscontact optimizes the harvesting processes and helps the smallholders to access financial services and markets.
In order to make this extensive approach work, the first step was the training of the project participants. After training 50 trainers, 150 smallholders were selected. They are participating
now at the training program for cocoa smallholders and become at the same time lead farmers. This is how already 4000 smallholders were trained. As a result, they managed to improve their production
and to increase their income by 20 percent.
For strengthening the value chain in the entire cocoa sector, Swisscontact also supports cooperatives, suppliers and traders. This contributes to the creation of employment
in small and medium-sized enterprises.