Kokoa Kamili

Tanzania

In the Kilombero valley, bordering the Udzungwa Mountain national park, smallholder farmers are producing an amazing cacao with a rounded profile, flavours of red fruits such as cherries and berries, floral notes and a smooth nutty and chocolaty finish. The social enterprise Kokoa Kamili drives a huge change in the community by buying wet beans directly from the farmers at premium prices, and carefully controlling fermentation and drying to assure a consistent quality product. The training of over 4000 farmers in good agricultural practices is helping to increase yield, as well as substantially increasing the quality of the beans, allowing them to achieve a higher farm gate price. This results in the farmers earning more money which allows them to invest more in their future, their family and education. Farmers in Kilombero have been practicing organic farming by default for generations. The lack of availability of inorganic inputs for cocoa has resulted in cacao trees that are grown without any pesticides, inorganic fertilisers, or other chemicals. In 2015 organic certification was obtained. In the gallery below you can identify which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals our bean supplier is facilitating whilst working with Kokoa Kamili and the growers in the Kilombero valley.

Bean supplier - Silva Cacao

Photographs - Silva Cacao

Sierra Nevada

Colombia

Cacao trees love tropical climates with high temperatures and lots of rainfall. This is exactly what many regions in Colombia have to offer. The country is know to produce excellent cacao; according to the International Cocoa Organization 95% of the beans exported from Colombia is fine flavour cacao. Not only abroad but also at home Colombian cacao is popular; the vast majority of the national cacao production (around 90%) is used domestically. Colombians eat chocolate as a sweet treat, but also use it in a drink in which they combine hot milk or sugar water with a chunk of chocolate. Arhuacos cacao is produced by around 80 indigenous smallholder farmers in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range on the Caribbean coast in North Colombia. The cacao is grown under the canopy of the natural forest, together with food crops like corn, yucca, and fruit trees. After manual picking the farmers bring the wet cacao beans to a central fermentation units. Fermentation is almost 7 days, after which the beans are dried on covered wooden decks for 14 days until moisture levels are below 7%. After careful screening, picking and selecting, the beans are packed and transported to Cacao Hunters’ warehouse in Popayan.

Bean supplier - Belco

Photographs - Belco

Lachuá

Guatemala

The Lachuá region is home to a pristine cenote lake within a national park (which has been a protected RAMSAR site since 2006) and to communities of indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya families.

Cacao Verapaz works in partnership with two smallholder associations located around the lake, ASODIRP and KATBALPOM. Together with three additional associations of other products like cardamom and chili peppers, they are leaders in creating economic incentives to develop and maintain biodiverse agroforestry buffer zones around the lake.

The communities work together to use sustainable agroforestry as a buffer, protecting the area from industrial palm oil development and other forms of extractive agriculture pervasive in northern Guatemala. The producers of Lachuá are highly professional and efficient.

The cacao farms in the Lachuá region are planted amidst lush karstic limestone hills that rise up from the rolling verdant landscape. Planted in more recent decades with a combination of trees selected locally for performance and flavour, the Lachuá cacao is complex and has a fascinating flavour profile.

Bean supplier - Uncommon Cacao

Photographs - Uncommon Cacao

Berau

Borneo

East Kalimantan was once the leading cacao growing region in Indonesia. Following an outbreak of the black pod disease in the 1990s however the Government moved most of the bulk production to Sulawesi.

The cooperative “Berau Cocoa” was founded in 2018 with the goal to rehabilitate the remaining treestock and promote cacao as alternative income source for the local farmers in an area which has traditionally been known for its coal mining industry.

Today, 168 farmers grow cacao on approx. 300 hectares. The Berau Cocoa team have been supported by a senior researcher from ICCRI who has supervised and trained the team in best practice farming and post-harvest handling methods.

Fermentation is undertaken in 2-tiered wooden boxes in a central fermentation station over 5 days. Drying takes 4 to 5 days in indirect sun on raised drying tables.

Bean supplier - Biji Kakao Trading

Photographs - Biji Kakao Trading