CERTIFICATION

RAINFOREST ALLIANCE CERTIFICATION PROJECT OF THE SAO

The Société Agricole de l’Ouest (SAO) is a company, member of the TOUTON group, created in 1998. The company manages our plantations and is situated in Côte d'Ivoire among the main cocoa producing regions. Therefore, the S.A.O. is present in the regions of Abengourou, Gagnoa and Soubré. The S.A.O. manages 1752 hectares of arable land, of which roughly 1200 hectares are already planted. The existing areas are mainly covered with cocoa, coffee and oil palm; with some smaller plots of almond and pepper. Our priority for the S.A.O. is to produce high quality, sustainable cocoa, coffee, and palm. Hence we have been working since 2002 with the Cirad on quality issues and since 2008 with the Rainforest Alliance on sustainability. Touton in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance( American NGO), are working on the certification of their plantations and, therefore, all the foodstuffs produced by the SAO in the Côte d'Ivoire . We are working on health standards; access to drinking water and to sanitary facilities, vaccinations, annual health checks for our employees, waste recycling. On social standards; schooling for our employees’ children, no forced labour, fair wages, respect of the International Labour Organisation rules, no discrimination, freedom of association, good working conditions (security, hygiene and access to emergency health care). We strive to improve the protection of the environment by developing a sense of responsibility among our employees, by adopting reasonable agricultural practice, by protecting the different ecosystems present on our plantations. We prioritise the treatment of waste water, recycling, the conservation of numerous trees providing shade on our plots, maintaining protected areas, referencing animal and plant species present at the different locations. Our three plantations are certified since January 2010