The Challenging Road to Self Sufficiency for a Fairtrade Association: TCGA Part II

TCGA Office: "Fairtrade guarantees a better deal for Third World Producers"

 

 

I'd like to pick up where I left off at the end of my last blog post. As part of a group visiting the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (TCGA) in Punta Gorda, Belize, I had the opportunity to hear a first-hand account of life in a farmers cooperative from a member farmer, Mr. Justino Peck. One of the challenges that became apparent during our discussion with Mr. Peck is the TCGA's struggle to become self sufficient.

Despite its status as a Fairtrade-certified organization, the TCGA is heavily reliant on grant funding, mostly from foreign organizations. This was an angle to fair trade I'd never considered before. When I think of fair trade, I think of farmers earning enough to live a better life. I hadn't considered that their association might not be self sufficient.

A View Inside the TCGA
The TCGA is a non-profit that was formed to support farmer members in marketing their produce. Its goal is to promote the growth of the industry, and to provide a sustainable source of cacao for the market. It also has the goal of trying to provide a stable income for cacao farmers, not one that fluctuates wildly with the commodity price of cacao.

The cacao farmers of the Toledo District have two cacao harvests a year. There is a criollo harvest that begins in October, and then a harvest of hybridized plants from Costa Rica that can last from January to June. Mr. Peck pointed out that climate change has made harvests unpredictable. Some years the harvest continues all year. This was not the first time I’d heard a Belizean farmer mention climate change, which surprised me. I’d always thought of it as an academic discussion that happens among more developed nations. I'd heard climate change mentioned by cacao farmer Eladio Pop, by Cotton Tree Lodge's Gardener, Armando, and now, Mr. Peck. This was a good reminder that no one knows climate change like a farmer.

Mr. Peck said that the farmers are not at full cacao production capacity because they also need to sell corn, beans, rice and other foods to make a living. While this forced crop diversity means they produce less cacao, it brings many important benefits. It's good for the environment, it's good for income stability, and it's good for the farmers’ families, who always have enough to eat. I have to give credit to Mr. Peck for a quote I have used in more than one blog post, “The Maya people are poor by cash statistics, but they’re rich in food.”

The Association has four full-time employees including a Manager, a Compliance Officer for Organic and Fairtrade, an Accountant and an Administrator. All of them are in tiny cubicles in the building we visited, which was a chemical storage facility before the farmers switched back to organic farming practices.

Mr. Justino Peck in the TCGA warehouse

The Challenging Road to Self Sufficiency
While Fairtrade certification brings some transparency and accountability to the purchase of cacao, it's an expensive program to implement. In most cases, small holder farms band together to create an association or cooperative that implements Fairtrade standards. This creates administrative costs for the association in the form of employees who certify and audit for Fairtrade compliance. There are also fees to become and remain a Fairtrade-certified organization. It's an expensive prospect.

The TCGA has a long way to go before it can cover these costs solely through the cacao harvest. Let me illustrate this for you.

The TCGA produces 50,000 pounds of cacao a year from 1,180 farmers. Mr. Peck told us that in order to become independent, the TCGA needs to produce 500,000 pounds of cacao a year. That's 10x their current cacao production, an enormous gap to fill.

Something dramatic needs to happen to the TCGA if it's going to reach its goal of self sufficiency. Its business model needs to evolve and it needs to innovate. In the meantime, the TCGA takes a lot of grant money from outside organizations to help fill the funding gap.

Grant Funding and the Odd Priorities it Creates
So who is providing these outside grants to the TCGA? Non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and governmental agencies including USAID, HIVOS (Dutch-based organization in Costa Rica), the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Fairtrade Foundation.

It was interesting hearing about the projects that some of these organizations have funded.

One of the best examples of the skewed prioritization that can happen when you’re receiving funding from outside sources is the example we saw while visiting the TCGA offices. Mr. Peck said that their office building was built by a project in 1993, but the TCGA still doesn’t own the building. Just this past January, the Ministry of Agriculture said it would grant a lease to the TCGA that would eventually enable the TCGA to purchase its office building. When we visited, the TCGA still didn’t have a copy of the promised lease from the government.

At the same time, Mr. Peck showed us the artist's drawings for a demonstration farm and Maya Cacao Museum that was going to be built a few miles from town. This lovely artist's rendering showed a Maya-pyramid-like building with orchards around it. While I'm not entirely clear on the timing for this new venture, it seemed like it was happening in the near future. Given the difficulties the TCGA is having in becoming self sustaining, I was surprised at the prioritization of this project. I had to conclude that the museum was being funded by an outside organization who had put up funds specifically for this project.

This left me with a number of questions about how projects get prioritized. Despite the best of intentions of outside organizations, is this project the best use of the TCGA's time and energy? Is it the best use of foreign resources?

The TCGA does not have ownership of its own offices, but it’s going to build a beautiful demonstration garden and cacao museum for the tourists to visit. While that might have some impact on the local farming community, producing more of their fabulous cacao would likely have a larger, faster impact, and help them get to self sufficiency faster.

Facing a Competitor
Let me turn back to the 1,180 farmer members of the TCGA who are going to have to produce 500,000 lbs of cacao a year for the TCGA to become sustainable. There's a wrinkle that developed recently. Not all of those 1,180 farmers are selling their cacao to the TCGA. Now they can choose to sell their cacao to the TCGA or to its competitor, Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC). This makes it even harder for the TCGA to become self sufficient.

MMC Fermentation House

If you read my blog post about MMC, you'll know that it's an innovative cacao purchasing company with a triple bottom line. Maya Mountain Cacao is purchasing cacao from the same farmers as the TCGA. While the TCGA administrators see this as a bad thing, I believe it's a good development.

MMC offers farmers a choice, and it brings new energy and a spirit of innovation and competition to the game that will help take the farmers to the next level. In the long term I think it will be a good thing for the farmers. In the short term, I couldn't help but sympathize with Mr. Peck's grave concerns. The TCGA has been working for many years to become self sufficient, and this upstart shows up and makes it even more difficult.

In the meantime, the TCGA and MMC are learning to collaborate on small initiatives. There's room for both groups to exist, and the rise of a scrappy competitor has forced the TCGA to become more nimble and innovative. For example, MMC purchases wet cacao instead of dry cacao. This enables MMC to control the fermentation, resulting in the kind of consistency desired by craft chocolate makers. The TCGA used to purchase dry cacao from farmers, leaving the fermentation process up to each farmer. Now the TCGA purchases wet cacao and controls the fermentation. This approach enables them to better meet the quality and consistency requirements of craft chocolate makers, making them much stronger competitors.

Outlook for the Future
Not surprisingly, Mr. Peck said that the ultimate goal for the TCGA is to take the value-added route and produce its own chocolate. There are a number of farmers’ cooperatives in Central America who have taken this path, creating more stable income streams for their members. Cooperatives such as Grenada Chocolate Company (Grenada), El Ceibo (Bolivia) and Kallari (Ecuador) all make chocolate.

While some of these cooperatives have been successful at creating quality chocolate that can compete on the international market, some of them have failed. I've had to make the hard decision not to sell chocolate from a farmers cooperative because of its poor quality. It's a very tough decision because I'd love to help the farmers. But I'm not helping them by purchasing chocolate that isn't going to sell. They'll never have incentive to ensure their chocolate farming and production is of a quality that will be successful on the international market.

Craft chocolate maker located a few blocks from TCGA office

I have hope, however, when it comes to the TCGA. It has some of the best organic cacao in the world, produced using traditional Mayan farming techniques. Craft chocolate makers are flocking to the area to source cacao, creating a direct feedback loop between the farmers and the chocolate makers. The TCGA benefits from the information it learns from craft chocolate makers about their desired fermentation and quality levels. This knowledge puts the TCGA in a great position to make chocolate that will succeed on the international market. Financial independence, while difficult to reach, is possible.

The of Best Intentions Not Always Enough: The First-Hand Perspective of a Fairtrade Farmer

Toledo Cacao Growers Association Office

As a professed cacao geek, one of the most exciting outings of our chocolate trip to Belize was a meeting with the former Association Chair of the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (“TCGA”).

Sitting at a long conference table in a small room, we could have been anywhere in the world. But here we were in Punta Gorda, the capital of the Toledo District, meeting with someone from a Fairtrade-certified farmers’ cooperative. After years of doing my best to answer customers’ questions about fair trade, I was sitting in the same room with a member farmer from a fair trade group. My moment had finally come.

Our host was the former Association Chair from 1992-1997, Mr. Justino Peck, himself a cacao farmer. I really appreciated his candor. He wasn’t trying to sugar-coat his experiences or how he views the future. He was incredibly honest and forth-coming, providing us with a brief glimpse into the window of his livelihood.

He spoke incredibly eloquently about the history of the TCGA, offering an illustration of how difficult it is to be an organization dependent upon outsider funding. It was hard not to be sympathetic with this man and his fellow farmer members. Outsiders come in and tell them what to do, and then leave after just a few years. The farmers are left to their own devices after the projects end, a practice that has taught them not to rely on outsiders.

Mr. Justino Peck, former Association Chair

The Beginning of the TCGA: USAID Arrives in Belize

In the 1970’s, farmers in Belize were growing cacao mostly for their own use. In 1984 USAID came to Belize to work with farmers to encourage commercial cacao farming. It probably won’t surprise you to find out that Hershey was involved in this interest in Belize. Mr. Peck, a teacher by training, decided to leave his job in 1984 and begin planting cacao.

USAID ran this project from 1984-1989. They encouraged farmers to abandon their traditional organic methods and begin using chemical “inputs”, a.k.a., fertilizer and pesticides. They introduced the farmers to Hershey as a buyer, who offered better prices. After only five years, the project came to an end and USAID left Belize.

Mr. Peck pointed out that while a cacao tree may begin producing pods after 3-5 years, it doesn’t reach maturity for ten years. Planting cacao is an investment for the Maya, one that they expect to produce for 80-100 years. USAID left after five years, leaving the farmers high and dry before their plants had truly reached maturity. The farmers jettisoned the fertilizers and pesticides and returned to the organic farming rituals and traditions of their ancestors. While this was good for them in the long-term, the short term was about to get ugly.

Between 1990 and 1991, the bottom fell out of the cacao market. Prices went from $0.85/lb to $0.25/lb (they're currently at $1.32/lb dry). Most farmers looked for jobs in the citrus, banana or shrimp industries. Mr. Peck, however, stuck with cacao.

It all started with Green & Black's

Green & Blacks Purchases its First Fairtrade Cacao

Mr. Peck became the first chairman elected to lead the TCGA in 1992. When a contact at the Ministry of Agriculture connected him with a buyer looking for organic cacao, he felt it was important for the TCGA to bind itself to one buyer to try to prevent the farmers from failing. Based on the farmers’ past experiences with the volatility of the cacao market, he felt the farmers would be better off signing contracts with specific buyers. Without a contract, it’s the farmers who fail in a down market, not the buyers.

In November 1993 the farmers agreed to sign a 3-year, binding contract with Whole Earth Foods Company LTD, a Green & Blacks joint venture. The farmers were happy with the negotiated price, and it gave them income certainty, something they’d never had with cacao. They produced 16,000 pounds of cacao in their first year, which, while significant for them, was only a small fraction of the cacao used in Green & Blacks’ production of their Maya Gold chocolate bar. It was Green & Blacks first purchase of Fairtrade cacao, and it was the beginning of a good relationship for the TCGA.

In 2005 Cadbury purchased Green & Blacks, and then in 2010 Cadbury was taken over by Kraft foods (now part of Mondelēz International). This is when things changed. While Kraft still purchases a significant amount of cacao from the TCGA, Kraft does not offer the rolling 5 year contracts that Green & Blacks offered in the past. Like most large chocolate companies, Kraft negotiates the price on every shipment based on world market rates at the time. If it weren’t for the booming interest in artisan craft chocolate, these farmers would be back to square one without a stable income.

Chocolate makers and chocophiles outside TCGA office and warehouse

The Impact of the Craft Chocolate Movement

The craft chocolate movement around the world, and, particularly in the US, has had an impact upon the Belize cacao market.

When Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC) set up shop in the Toledo District in 2010, the TCGA was skeptical. Here was another outside group that the TCGA didn’t expect to stick around. During my stay in Belize I heard that the TCGA had discouraged farmers from selling to MMC, telling the farmers that MMC wouldn’t be around for long. Given the track record of outsiders, can you blame them for saying this?

Fast forward four years, and MMC is going stronger than ever and expects to be around for a long time.

So what’s different? There’s been a fundamental change in the American chocolate market. American chocolate lovers are becoming chocophiles. They’re learning to appreciate single-origin chocolate made from organic, fine flavor cacao that has been well fermented, and they understand that with this increase in quality comes an increase in price. Demand for organic fine flavor cacao can only be expected to continue to grow.

I considered sharing this thought with Mr. Peck, but I decided I wouldn’t. After his experiences with outsiders leaving, I decided he and the other farmers would need to figure this out for themselves through personal experiences that would only come with time.

Stay tuned for Part II of the story of the TCGA. Next week, The Challenging Road to Self Sufficiency for a Fairtrade Association.

Organic Cacao with a Triple Bottom Line: The Very Tasty Story of Maya Mountain Cacao

Me and my neatly raked piles of cacao on the drying beds
at Maya Mountain Cacao

I returned from my week in the jungles of Belize inspired by the story of Maya Mountain Cacao. A for-profit, socially responsible company, Maya Mountain Cacao brings the craft chocolate movement directly to the doorstep of small-holder cacao farmers. The farmers earn more for their cacao, and the craft chocolate makers earn direct access to a consistent supply of some of the best cacao in the world. It enables direct trade to flourish among even the smallest craft chocolate makers. It’s a wonderful win-win situation that benefits everyone involved and is a model for the future of fine flavor cacao.

My introduction to Maya Mountain Cacao (“MMC”) started when Mark and I arrived at the Cotton Tree Lodge on our first day in Belize. Located on the grounds of the lodge, MMC’s fermentation house, drying beds and seedling operations are steps from the cabanas. The grounds are dotted with cacao trees everywhere, and guests are encouraged to pluck ripe pods from trees and partake of the juicy, sweet cacao pulp inside.

Me and Carlos covering fermenting cacao w/banana leaves
Photo courtesy of Bryan Graham, Fruition Chocolate

We were also invited to spend as much time as we’d like at the fermentation house.  I helped MMC’s Carlos and his team move fermenting cacao from the 2nd of three bins to the 3rd and final bin. I had my arms up to my elbows in hot, sticky, wet fermenting cacao, helping to shove beans from the bottom of bin two to the top of bin three while breaking up clumps of beans with my hands. Carlos pulled out his machete to cut long swaths of banana leaves to use as a covering to help build up heat in the boxes of fermenting cacao. We carefully covered the tops of the fermenting piles to ensure there were no “peeping beans”, as Carlos put it. Then I headed to the drying beds, where I learned that the majority of the day is spent raking beans to prevent them from getting moldy. Beans ferment for six days and get moved twice during that process, which means that moving the beans only happens every other day and only takes about 15 minutes. The rest of the time is spent raking.

What’s so special about Maya Mountain Cacao? There are a few things that make it innovative.

Maya Mountain Cacao's Triple Bottom Line & Partners

MMC is a for-profit, socially responsible company with a triple bottom line that focuses on social, environmental and financial measures of success. Its approach to the business of fine cacao is one that

Alex Whitmore at Hummingbird Farm

encourages the farmers to act economically and make good business decisions. A key founding member of the company is Alex Whitmore of Taza Chocolate, a craft chocolate maker who knows exactly what craft chocolate makers look for in fine cacao. MMC’s ability to deliver cacao that meets the highest requirements of the craft chocolate movement is one of its competitive advantages, and is a major reason why it had a waiting list of 31 craft chocolate makers this year. There just isn't enough of this fabulous cacao to go around.

Emily Stone at Hummingbird Farm

Another competitive advantage is Emily Stone, MMC’s Managing Director and one of its original founders.

Emily was a shareholder activist in Boston in her mid-twenties, advocating for major corporations to “green” their supply chains. Just about the time she had tired of sitting behind a computer, she met Alex Whitmore of Taza Chocolate and Jeff Pzena of the Cotton Tree Lodge, who had formulated a plane for Maya Mountain Cacao. Two weeks later, Emily was on a plan to Punta Gorda, Belize. Four years later, she’s never looked back.

I first met Emily at a chocolate makers’ brunch at Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco last January. Emily introduced herself and told me how excited she was that Mark and I were joining Taza’s chocolate week in Belize in March. We had a great conversation, and after she walked away, another chocolate maker approached me. He said, “You don’t understand, Emily controls the Belizean cacao market.” I have to admit I thought that was a bit of hyperbole. Until I saw Emily in action in Belize.

Emily is a force of nature. She’s smart, eloquent, politically savvy, and she knows how to build consensus. Her background in grassroots organizing has been an incredible benefit to her ability to make MMC a success. We arrived the day after the annual farmers meeting. Not only did Emily speak at the meeting, she read her speech in both dialects of Maya spoken by the farmers, Q'eqchi' and Mopan Maya. She has a sense of adventure, which is important when you’re traveling around the jungles of Belize, and now Guatemala (MMC just set up a new operation in Guatemala), and she’s not afraid of anything. I had moments of envy, wishing that I had such gumption at her age.

Gabriel Pop, courtesy MMC

It would have been difficult for MMC to be successful, however, without Gabriel Pop, son of the illustrious Eladio Pop, and the fourth founder of MMC. As a local cacao farmer and former Field Director for the Toledo Cacao Growers Association, Gabriel had the relationships and credibility that were necessary for MMC’s success. He believed in MMC’s mission and made the first key introductions by organizing buying days in villages where he knew farmers would be receptive.

One more aspect that makes MMC an innovative company in the Belizean market is its focus on fermentation practices and purchasing wet cacao from the farmers. Traditionally, Belizean farmers would ferment their own cacao and sell it for a dry price. By purchasing wet cacao, MMC controls the fermentation process, resulting in consistent fermentation rates geared towards the craft chocolate market. This brings a level of consistency to a batch of fermented cacao that isn’t possible when farmers are individually controlling the fermentation of their crop.

What’s also really cool is that MMC enables small craft chocolate makers to purchase cacao directly in small quantities, something that has been next to impossible until now. It shortens the supply chain, eliminating the many layers of middlemen common in a commodity supply chain. Farmers are paid a more significant share of the final price for their cacao, and chocolate makers get more value out of their dollar by ensuring that more of what they pay ends up in farmers’ pockets. All of this encourages farmers to continue to produce cacao and to do it with quality in mind.

Me and Mark with Dahlia & Bryan of Fruition Chocolate
Bryan is on a waiting list for MMC cacao.

There are so many additional ways in which MMC has impacted its community. It has increased the acreage certified as organic, rehabilitated land from slash-and-burn agriculture, increased farmer income, improved availability of pre-harvest financing through microcredit, created jobs, and contributed to the emergence of new community leaders.

The team behind MMC has a number of exciting new initiatives that will increase the size of their impact in Belize and in Guatemala. While we were in Belize, MMC signed an operating agreement with the owner of the former Hummingbird Hershey cacao farm. MMC is rehabilitating the farm that was abandoned by Hershey years ago and is turning it into an organic cacao farm that will produce a significant volume of the quality cacao available in Belize. Guatemala is also on the agenda. As we left Belize, Alex and Emily were headed to Guatemala, where they recently set up an operation that has similar goals to MMC.

In my next blog post, I’ll share the story of the Toledo Cacao Growers Association, the Fairtrade farmer’s association set up in the Toledo District of Belize. While they were founded in 1986, the majority of their success came in the mid-1990’s when they began selling their cacao to Green & Blacks for the Maya Gold bar. It’s an incredibly interesting story, and we had the opportunity to hear it first hand from the Chair of the farmers association from 1992-1997. It brought to life the advantages and challenges faced by farmers' associations. I took a lot of notes, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

Eladio Pop: A Motivational Mayan Organic Cacao Farmer

Eladio Pop

Our visit to Belize for Taza Chocolate’s annual chocolate week began with a visit to Eladio Pop, a Mayan cacao farmer who is somewhat famous in the Toledo District of southern Belize. He is the main character in a documentary called "The Chocolate Farmer", and he's been the subject of other videos and write-ups as well. Search “Eladio Pop” on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.

Eladio's Cacao Pods

We met Eladio at his “farm” in the jungle. I put farm in quotes because it’s not an orchard with neatly planted rows of a single crop of trees as you might expect in the US. Eladio's farm is a mass of organized jungle, filled with fruit trees of all kinds, cedar and mahogany trees, rubber trees, spice trees, chili bushes and every kind of edible or useful plant you can imagine. It’s not planted in an orderly fashion, but Eladio knows every plant on his farm, its history and exactly where it’s located.

As I listened to the ever-smiling Eladio talk about his farm, I couldn’t help but think that he could be coining it in the US as a motivational speaker. He had plenty of enthusiasm and charisma, but also a strong personal philosophy that included beliefs about the detriments of education, the preservation of his cultural Mayan heritage, slash & burn farming, his ants, cacao, you name it. His wardrobe seems to consist of t-shirts from the US with messages on them. The first one he wore during our visit was a local, "Maya Mountain Cacao" shirt, followed by a “think outside the box” t-shirt and then a "TURN OFF the TV" shirt, which my husband, Mark, pointed out was a Seattle company. I noticed on various photos on the internet that his collection includes “The Rules Don’t Apply to Me”, an NYPD shirt, and more. These t-shirts left me with many questions, such as “Did he purchase these shirts himself?” “Did visitors leave them for him?”, “Does he choose the message to make a statement, or does he just like the shirts?” But I digress.

Mayan Ruins on Eladio's Farm

Pete, the botanist, with Eladio

We began our tour near a cacao tree with a sign that says “Agouti Cacao Farm, owned by Eladio Pop”. Eladio cracked open a cacao pod and passed it around for our first taste of mucilage in Belize. This was a recurring theme throughout our trip. Plenty of cacao mucilage to taste, all of it juicy and delicious, and yes, it grows on trees all over the jungle and at the Cotton Tree Lodge. And, as my fellow travelers would knowingly say, "we had Pete", an exuberant botanist who plucked any edible fruit off of any tree we came across and figured out how to open it so we could taste whatever he'd found. Pete kept us eating cacao throughout our trip. The just-off-the-tree, fresh pods of Belize had lots of thick, sweet, tart and fruity mucilage that was like ambrosia. Mucilage is the gelatinous pulp that covers cacao beans and is critical to fermentation. It tastes fantastic in its raw form.

Mmmm! Fresh, juicy cacao beans covered in mucilage

I’ve always told my customers that you suck on the pulp of cacao but that you don’t eat the beans because they’re too bitter. That’s been the experience I’ve had when hanging out with chocolate makers and cacao scientists - they usually spit out the beans after enjoying the pulp. It turns out I was wrong. The Maya we met suck on the pulp and eat the beans. In fairness, these are the best-tasting cacao beans I’ve ever tasted. While there’s certainly a bitter finish when chewing on the beans, they taste nothing like the ones I’ve been able to get my hands on in the US. I can understand why a farmer would eat the entire thing.

Organic composting at its best

As we rambled through the jungle with Eladio, he pointed out trees, property lines, termite nests and his ants. Ants are an important part of his organic farming and they serve as an indicator of the farm’s health. What I thought were very narrow hiking paths on the ground turned out to be ant trails that lead to a large anthill. The ants had built up a significant mound of lovely, aerated dirt, and Eladio picked up a handful and threw it on the base of a nearby tree. He relies on this excellent dirt to improve the soil quality on his farm.

As we continued our hike through Eladio’s farm he pointed to property lines on distant hills. It looked like one large jungle to me, seemingly impossible to distinguish one property from another through the dense forest and steep hills. His cacao trees are scattered about his farm among allspice trees, apple bananas, hot chili peppers, cedar, calabash, Theobroma Bicolor (a different species than cacao) and mahogany trees, to name just a few of the crops he grows.  A strong memory for me was crumpling a leaf from an allspice tree and smelling its deep, spicy aroma. Allspice is a key ingredient in Mayan drinking chocolate, and we later had the opportunity to drink cacao and allspice in a traditional Mayan drink made by Eladio's daughter.

View of neighboring farms in the distance

We arrived at a clearing where Apple Bananas were laid out on a tarp for us to eat. There was a hot chili bush nearby with tiny, oblong green and red chilies ready to taste. Many of us tried the hot chilies, and very soon I heard someone say, “Wash it down with an Apple Banana”, which I did. My mouth and throat were on fire.

Eladio & two of his sons

Eladio's youngest son

Eladio’s farm is a perfect example of a multi-culture in which a diverse group of crops come together to form a perfect organic farm. Organic, multi-culture farming has been the Maya tradition for generations, and it enables cacao farmers to feed their families, no matter how cash poor they are. The Maya could teach us a thing or two about organic farming. There have been aid agencies that have come to Toledo and tried to teach the farmers to use fertilizer and pesticides (“inputs”), but many shied away from it because it wasn’t part of their tradition. Luckily, the aid groups left and the cacao farmers returned to their organic cacao-farming processes. Stay tuned for a blog post about the Toledo Cacao Growers Association, the farmer's cooperative, and their experiences with some of these outside aid groups.

We left Eladio’s farm and headed to his family home, where we ate lunch. Eladio is a virulent man with fifteen children. His family lives in a cement-block house with a thatched roof, pretty much the same as every Mayan village we saw. Their kitchen is in a separate area with a dirt floor, no walls and its own thatched roof. While his family may seem poor by US standards, they have a lot of food. As one of his colleagues said, “We’re poor in cash, but rich in food.”

Ryan from Raaka Chocolate showing Eladio's kids a video of how he makes chocolate in a machine

In Eladio’s case, business appears to be pretty good. His family offers tours, overnight jungle stays and chocolate making classes through their website and through the Cotton Tree Lodge and various tour groups. In the past year he constructed a new group lunch area with a cement patio and a thatched roof. His youngest son followed us around the farm with an iPhone, photographing us as much as we were photographing him. It’s wonderful to see a traditional, organic cacao farmer being appreciated by outsiders for his principles and practices. I look forward to seeing what Eladio’s up to in the future.

Me and Eladio

Next up on your armchair tour of Belize, a feature on Maya Mountain Cacao.

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren
Chief Chocophile

Taza Chocolate: A Small Chocolate Maker with an Outsized Impact

As many of you know, I spent a week in Belize at the Cotton Tree Lodge with Taza Chocolate. I have so many great cacao-related stories to share with you that it’s hard to choose which one to share next. I’ve decided that since this week’s chocolate happy hour theme is Taza Chocolate I should, well, talk about Taza Chocolate! Before I start, I’d like to throw down a challenge to our customers.

Lauren's Chocolate Challenge
This challenge is for everyone, but particularly for those of you who have tasted Taza Chocolate before -  I challenge you to try it again. If you’ve never tasted Taza Chocolate, I challenge you to taste it with an open mind (and palate).

As you taste this “perfectly unrefined” chocolate, focus on the flavor of the cacao. Taza purchases some of the best organic cacao in the world and minimally refines it to bring you closer to the flavor of the cacao bean. I’ve learned to embrace the crunchy texture of Taza’s unrefined style, and to enjoy the taste of great cacao. I encourage you to do the same.

Alex Whitmore at Maya Mtn Cacao

Direct Trade, Taza Style
As the organizer of chocolate week at the Cotton Tree Lodge, Taza Chocolate Founder, Alex Whitmore, had the bully pulpit for the week. On three nights, Alex gave talks on topics as wide-ranging as chocolate refining techniques, Mayan cacao farmers and Direct Trade versus Fairtrade. I have something to say about each of these topics, but for this post I’m going to tell you what makes Taza such an extraordinary company – its commitment to Direct Trade.

Taza is a small company. By small, I mean a blip on the charts of the world’s major chocolate companies. Taza produces very small amounts of chocolate using a fraction of a percent of the world’s cacao. At the same time, Taza is one of the largest craft chocolate companies, which puts it in a unique position. Compared to its artisan peers, who might use hundreds of pounds of cacao a year, Taza uses tons of cacao a year, enough to have an impact at the country of origin. And impact it has.

You may notice a Direct Trade logo on every bar of Taza Chocolate. This logo is not sanctioned by any particular group - it’s one that Taza created. Yet it has more meaning and impact than many of the sanctioned fair trade logos on the market. How does such a small company have such a big impact? Taza works directly with cacao farmers, sets clear quality standards for fermented cacao, pays more for cacao than the competition and hires an independent, third party to audit its direct trade practices every year.  As Alex pointed out, it all comes down to transparency. Taza is a fully transparent company.
But wait. There’s more!

Many of Taza’s craft chocolate peers aren’t able to purchase the same volumes of cacao, which severely limits their access to the finest cacao in the world. In the spirit of cooperation, Taza sells cacao to many small artisans, providing them with access to some of the same great cacao Taza is sourcing directly from the countries of origin for its own use. This ensures that more chocolate is being made with directly-sourced cacao. It’s a win-win-win for Taza, for its peers and for cacao farmers.

I admit I’ve looked at the Direct Trade logo on Taza chocolate bars many times without really understanding what it meant. Let me provide a summary of the power behind that small graphic label.

Maya Mountain Cacao does detailed flavor & fermentation analysis on every batch of cacao

Taza Chocolate’s Five Direct Trade Principles
Taza sources superior quality cacao beans that have 95% or higher fermentation rates and are dried to 7% moisture or less. In addition, Taza follows five direct trade principles.

1. Works exclusively with USDA Certified Organic cacao farms that practice sustainable agriculture
2. Pays a premium of at least $500US per metric ton above the NYICE price and a floor price of $2,800 per metric ton on the date of invoice directly to cacao farmers
3. Physically visits each cacao farmer or cooperative at least once a year to build long-term, sustainable relationships
4. Only buys cacao from farmers and farmer coops that ensure fair and humane work practices
5. Never purchases cacao from farmers or farmer coops that engage in child or slave labor

Alex smells cacao drying at Hummingbird farm in Cayo

At great expense, particularly for a start-up chocolate company, Taza hires an independent, third party auditor each year to certify its direct trade claims, and it produces a report that's available for anyone to review.

Wow! What more can I say? A lot, actually.

The subject of fair trade versus direct trade is a long, complicated affair. Taza’s direct trade approach is a much more robust and impactful way to make change at the farmer’s level. I would be remiss if I didn’t compare Taza’s use of direct trade to fair trade. Without the comparison, you wouldn’t understand the impact.

In the interest of keeping you from nodding off, I’m going to summarize and make it as simple as possible. Please keep in mind that my over-simplified version is exactly that. But it’s a good start at helping my readers understand the pros, cons and limitations of many of the fair trade programs on the market.

An example of fair trade cacao pricing:

How is fair trade different than direct trade? I’ll summarize by sharing the price difference for a farmer selling at the fair trade price versus a farmer selling to Taza Chocolate. Please keep in mind that the floor prices stated are a minimum price. Historically, cacao has traded below these prices, but it's currently at some of its highest prices, so it's selling above both floor prices. Prices are approximate as of April 14, 2014.

Fair trade and Certified Organic cocoa price:
Fairtrade floor price: $2,000 per metric ton

$3,060US per metric ton (current market price)
+$200US Fair trade premium per metric ton
+$300US organic premium
$3,560US per metric ton

It’s important to keep a few things in mind when looking at this number:

1. The cacao farmer does not receive the fair trade premium directly. The premium is given to the coop, and the coop Board determines how it will spend premium money. An example might be building new infrastructure (e.g., water wells) for member villages. In this example, the farmer would keep approximately $3,360US.
2. Farmers not Certified Organic will not receive the Organic premium
3. Farmers must pay a certification fee to the fair trade organization and to a USDA-approved organic certifier to receive either of these premiums. Certification can be expensive and out of the question for many small farmers. Farmers who are producing quality cacao and being paid more than market rates may not bother with fair trade certification because of the expense and the bureaucracy involved.
4. While craft chocolate makers might purchase cacao that’s fair trade certified, they must also pay to certify their business to use the fair trade logo. This is an expense that’s often outside the budget of a craft chocolate maker. Some of the chocolate you’re eating maybe fair trade, but it may not have a logo on it.

A cut test on fermented beans to assess quality

Taza Chocolate Direct Trade price:
Taza Direct Trade floor price: $2,800US

$3,060US per metric ton (current market price)
+$500US per metric ton Taza direct trade premium
+$300US organic premium
$3,860US per metric ton

While this is the minimum amount Taza pays for cacao that meets its criteria, Taza may end up paying more. Some of the cacao Taza purchases is in high demand among the finest chocolate makers. Farmers selling fine cacao can command prices well above the world market rate, and a quality chocolate maker like Taza will pay the higher price. At the end of the day, selling well-fermented, quality cacao is what brings farmers a higher price.

There’s so much more to consider, but I’m going to stop here.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post, Eladio Pop: A motivational Mayan organic cacao farmer.

You Better Belize it! My cacao adventures in the jungles of Belize.

After six years in the chocolate business, I finally had an opportunity to immerse myself in cacao, figuratively and literally, by joining Taza Chocolate’s annual chocolate week in Belize.  Held every March at the Cotton Tree Lodge outside of Punta Gorda, the trip is open to anyone who loves chocolate and the outdoors, and

Lauren and Mark at Maya Mtn Cacao

has a sense of adventure. My husband, Mark Kotzer, and I had a fantastic time. I highly recommend it!

I’m embarrassed to say that I initially had visions of waking up to the waters of the Caribbean Sea lapping at our cabana doorstep. It didn’t take me long to realize that our lodge was 11 miles up the Moho River from Punta Gorda (“PG”) and the Caribbean Sea, situated in the middle of the Belizean jungle.  Not to worry, just saying the word “jungle” turned this trip from the ordinary to the exotic.

As our Delta redeye from LA approached the Belize City International airport, I could see many varied trees that formed a pin cushion of greens, each pin coming together to create a pattern of shades and textures. Lush forests were dotted with rivers, large and small. As the plane came closer to landing, individual trees became apparent. Some were tall and spindly and stood above the others. Many were palm trees. From the air, Belize takes on the look of a vast and untamed jungle. This trip was beginning to have “adventure” written all over it.

A street in Punta Gorda

Since I was finally making it to a cacao-growing country, and a Mayan one at that, I relaxed my ban on flying in small planes. Mark and I boarded a Tropic Air flight to Punta Gorda. We flew down the coast, giving us a birds-eye-view of the extensive coral reefs of the Caribbean on one side of the plane, and the endless jungle on the other. Our flight included a quick, bumpy stop on the dirt runway at the Belize Airport (not to be confused with the Philip S. Goldson International Airport where our Delta flight landed) to take on cargo such as flower wreaths, appliances and toilet paper. That was as close as we got to Belize City.

Upon arriving at the Cotton Tree Lodge, we moved into our cabana, which was a large, circular room on stilts that was wrapped with screens in place of windows. The screens left us feeling almost as one with the

Our cabana at the Cotton Tree Lodge

jungle and with our neighboring cabanas. Our beds were covered with mosquito nets, and the back porch offered two hammocks and some very comfortable Adirondack-like chairs. Like the roofs on the Maya homes we would see everywhere, ours was made of a significant thatch.

I took my first swim in the Moho River before the group met for our introductory dinner. The color of the river reminded me of the lakes I swam in as a child in Maine. Dark and murky, but cool and refreshing. One thing I learned about the jungle is that breezes are few and humidity is high. Swimming in the Moho is the best relief on a sticky, sweaty day.  It’s also the best way to see the many, many colorful birds that live in the area and frequent the trees on the Moho. Parrots are everywhere, once you learn to recognize their awkward flying. There are tanagers, Laughing Falcons, hummingbirds, and many birds I’ve never heard of before. We saw large iguanas sunning themselves in the treetops (although none of them as large as the six-foot orange iguana we saw in Placencia). While the national bird of Belize is the Toucan, it’s one of the only birds I didn’t see during our stay. As an avid swimmer, I was glad to find out the Moho River is crocodile-free.

Our Cabana

Jaguars are native to the area, but I knew the likelihood of seeing one was small. The owner of the lodge, Chris, has only seen two in 30 years, and both of those at night.  Howler Monkeys, on the other hand, are frequent visitors, particularly at night. I’m not sure who named them “howler” monkeys, because it certainly doesn’t sound like they’re howling. Darth Vader monkeys would be more appropriate. A local told us that the noise used for T-Rex in Jurassic Park was a recording of Howler Monkeys slowed down. That made sense. When they come swinging into the jungle, you hear the heavy breathing of Darth Vader getting louder and louder, with an occasional bark in between. They don’t always stay for long, but you know they’re there. I never saw them, but Shane from Taza did. They’re not that large, they just sound big.

Alex Whitmore, Taza Chocolate

We met our fellow chocophiles at dinner the first night, where we feasted on snapper poached in banana leaves. It was a wonderful group of people that spanned interests and generations. In addition to industry types, such as Bryan and Dahlia Graham from Fruition Chocolate and the guys from Raaka Chocolate, the group included chocolate lovers who found the trip online, and loyal Taza customers. There were 22 of us, including two Taza employees, Shane (a cacao roaster) and Suhayl (a marketing/social media/events evangelist for Taza Chocolate).

Taza, Raaka & Fruition walking in PG

After dinner, Alex Whitmore, the Founder of Taza Chocolate, welcomed us. In preparation for our activities the following morning, we watched a documentary about the cacao farmers of the Toledo district, which featured the farmer we’d be visiting, Eladio Pop (more about Eladio and the cacao farmers of Toledo in a blog post to come). Eladio is quite a character, and he’s an excellent example of an organic cacao farmer from a country that has farmed cacao and made chocolate for centuries. I recommend watching the documentary, “The Chocolate Farmer,” on Youtube.

In preparation for the rest of our evening, a very large bug landed on the screen while we were watching the documentary. I sketched a 3 inch version of the bug in my notebook and wrote “Bigger than this by 2x”. It was a HUGE flying bug. Its relatives awaited us back in our bathroom.

Nim Li Punit w/Agapito

Our week was filled with group activities that included hanging out on cacao farms, swimming in dark Mayan caves and visiting Mayan ruins. I’m going to break down our adventures into multiple blog posts, focused on the cacao and chocolate-related parts of the trip. There’s just so much to tell!

Since I can’t cover everything, I’m leaving you with my top 10 memories of our week of adventure, not in any particular order.


Lauren's Chocolate Week Top 10

1. Getting my arms into a pile of sticky, hot, fermenting cacao to help MMC employees Carlos, Francisco and Mordechai move it to the final bin to finish fermentation. I’m still picturing Carlos as he cut banana leaves with his machete so I could cover the fermenting cacao.
2. A cold and dark swim through Blue Creek Cave with a life preserver and a headlamp, swimming and scrambling over rocks while providing moral support to those less comfortable in water.
3. A nocturnal jungle walk with Armando (insert ABBA song here) where I realized that the jungle is made up of a lot of ants and spiders, and that spider eyes look like emeralds and sapphires in the dark with a flashlight.
4. Swimming in the Moho River while birds of every kind and color flew just above my head and hung out on trees around me. I’m just glad I wasn’t in the water when a boa constrictor fell off a tree and swam past Julie, a fellow Chocophile.
5. Doing the Cotton Tree triathlon, which consisted of a very short run followed by floating down the Moho River with the current and kayaking back for our shoes.
6. Hearing the howler monkeys every day
7. Meeting with the former Association Chair of the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (a non-profit coop). Truly a geeky moment for me. More to come in another blog post.
8. Visiting Eladio Pop’s jungle farm, eating lunch with his family and helping his wife and daughter make traditional drinking chocolate. More to come in another blog post.
9. Touring Maya Mountain Cacao after a great presentation by Emily Stone, Managing Director. More to come on Maya Mountain Cacao and the great work it’s doing with the farmers of Belize.
10. A day trip to Hummingbird Hershey, a former Hershey farm that Maya Mountain Cacao will be operating as an organic cacao farm for at least the next 10 years. This was probably my favorite day of the entire trip! More to come in another blog post.

Stay tuned for more blog posts about cacao in Belize and our trip. In the meantime, I leave you with a rare, goofy moment from my husband, Mark Kotzer.

Mark in a light moment

Happy chocolate tasting,

Lauren

Chief Chocophile

What We’re Eating: Escazu Pumpkin Seeds & Guajillo Chili Chocolate Bar

If you can’t decide between a crunchy snack and a piece of chocolate, than look no further than the Escazu Pumpkin Seeds & Guajillo Chili chocolate bar. The pumpkin seeds provide a satisfying crunch with a hint of salt. The guajillo chili, though mild, complements the pumpkin seeds and adds just pinch of spice to the bar. Of course you can’t forget the most important part, the chocolate. The chocolate is created using a wonderful blend of cacao from Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Its smooth texture paired with the crunch of the seeds creates a delightful eating experience.

Stop by today from 11am-5pm to taste a sample of the Escazu Pumpkin Seeds & Guajillo Chili chocolate bar.

Anna

Chocolate Bar-ista