Dove Chocolate is opening a marketplace for female entrepreneurs in Africa

In time for International Women's Day, brand is supporting women-run businesses and re-investing in cocoa-growing communities

Published On
Mar 07, 2019

Editor's Pick

In time for International Women's Day, Dove Chocolate is opening a new marketplace in Africa dedicated to supporting female entrepreneurs. The Mars-owned candy brand has partnered with humanitarian nonprofit CARE to launch the market in Gueyo, a cocoa-growing village located in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa.

The Gueyo market is set to open in July and gives women of the village a place to sell their goods and spaces to organize meetings. The overall goal is for the women to achieve financial independence and re-invest in their cocoa-growing communities. Côte d’Ivoire contributes to 40 percent of the world’s cocoa supply.

The marketplace itself is not branded. However, in the coming weeks, Dove and CARE will be promoting their partnership via e-commerce. For every purchase of Dove Promises chocolate on Amazon, $5.00 will be donated to CARE.

Dove Chocolate has been partnering with CARE since 2015 to support women in building their own businesses through what's called the "Village Savings and Loan Association." The program supplies loans to 6,000 people across 39 communities in Cote d'Ivoire. 80 percent of participants are women.