Roberto Reyes, a member of the Cacahuatl de Rl producers’ organization in the community of San Pedro Nonualco, El Salvador, tells us about his beginnings in the cacao sector and rural promotion. “Currently I have a three-year-old cocoa plot of 1 mz of land established under agroforestry systems. I like to apply the knowledge I
Ecuador is recognized worldwide for its outstanding national fine aroma cacao. Historically, it is one of the most economically and culturally important products in the country. In 2011 Olam Ecuador began marketing cacao from small farmers in 8 provinces of the country; as of 2014 they started their sustainability programs in alliance with different clients.
The WCR Verified program is a World Coffee Research initiative in charge of certifying that coffee seed producers and nurseries are producing genetically pure, healthy plants. This certification program is designed to provide independent, science-based quality control and assurance at the beginning of the coffee supply chain. Elena Landaverde, head of the José Ángel Saavedra
Cajamarca is a department of Peru located in the northwest of the country. It nests in the Quechua region, located on both sides of the Peruvian Andes mountain range (between 2300-3,500 m a.s.l.), and boasts a temperate climate, sunny during the day but cold at night. Clotilde Huaman Peña, a 54-year-old coffee producer, arrived in
In Guatemala, Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas Program (MOCCA) works in partnership with the company Peter Schoenfeld S.A., a member of the VOLCAFE group, to strengthen the technical skills of more than two thousand coffee growers and improve their productivity and quality, thus facilitating access to planting material, financing under better
Sensenti is a town located in the department of Ocotepeque in western Honduras, an area that produces specialty coffees with different cup profiles, characterized by their exotic fruit flavors and delicate acidity. Zoyla Maldonado and Yaneth Lemus are two women who, like many others in their locality, have followed family tradition and dedicated themselves to
Cadmium is a heavy metal with a blue hue, closely associated with zinc. In the Andean region, Ecuador is leading the charge in the mitigation of cadmium in cacao crops due to a national multi-stakeholder research and dissemination agenda. In this field, Rikolto and MOCCA support research to ensure product access to European markets. Access
Located seventy kilometers away from Guatemala City in the department of Chimaltenango, is the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque, a historic place with a rich ancestral tradition and important archaeological sites, keeper of the legacy of the indigenous Mayan peoples of the highlands of the Central American country. In San Martín, more than 80% of
Audelina Ruiz is a 51-year-old coffee grower from Cubulco, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. She is the mother of 8 children and started in the coffee growing business with her husband approximately 5 years ago. “In the beginning we had many losses at our coffee farm, we did not know how to control the pests and we
“Now we are better prepared to face the market,” says Abdón Heras, Chairman of Chocoben. The company is preparing its first export to Bolivia and he tells us how the program “Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas” (MOCCA) helped them make the leap. Chocoben is an Ecuadorian company with more than 20
