Organic cacao exports help Toledo farmers
It will never rank with the massive export industries of sugar, citrus and bananas in terms of foreign exchange… but dollar for dollar, the economic impact of organic cacao on farmers in southern Belize gives new meaning to the term “cash crop.” Jose Sanchez reports from Punta Gorda.
Jose Sanchez
“There are many Mayan communities in the southern districts of Belize. Living in rural areas has preserved their culture, but isolation creates problems for economic development. However, the doors of opportunity are opening as one company based in England is doing its best to revive a dying industry.”
That industry is cacao. Maya farmers have been growing these beans for over a thousand years, now it’s the main ingredient in what may be the world’s most unique bar of chocolate.
John Kennedy, Commercial Director, Green and Black’s
“Green and Black’s manufactures and sells high quality organic chocolate mainly in the U.K., but also in the United States and parts of Europe and the rest of the world.”
And all of the cacao is grown right here in Toledo.
John Kennedy
“The president of the company visited Belize a number of years ago and was approached to buy some cacao that was been grown, but could no longer find a buyer. This cacao was organically grown, so the idea was formed to produce a bar using that cacao, that would tell the story of how it’s grown on the marketing and the packaging, so that people understood. Out of that came the Maya Gold bar, which we now sell very successfully in all of our markets.”
Commercial cacao is no stranger to Belize. Chocolate giant Hershey once operated the world’s largest cacao farm on the Hummingbird Highway. When world prices plummeted, local farmers felt the pinch.
Justino Chiac, Farmer
“In those days, we used to send our cacao to Hershey. From there I think we deal for about four to five years. It dropped to one dollar and twenty-five cents, then to a dollar, then to eighty cents, then it went to a low of sixty-five cents. Right there, we the farmers from Maya Mopan got discouraged because the price was very low.”
And at that point, for many farmers it no longer made sense to even reap their crop… until Green and Black’s came along.
Justino Chiac
“From now they are paying one dollar and forty cents a pound right now. I think we get encouraged now and more farmers are joining us. And that same forty-five acres, some of our farmers just left it in the bush. But now they see the price is going up and that’s why we are still going on cacao now.”
Before sweet chocolate, there is cacao. When reaching a ripe colour of yellow or orange, farmers pull the pods from the trees. The cacao beans would then be put in a sack to drain off its juice, followed by placement in a box to start the fermentation process. For seven days, the farmers occasionally stir the beans to hasten the process. After checking the readiness of the product, the farmers trek to Punta Gorda town, where the Toledo Growers Association inspects the quality before selling the beans to Green and Black’s.
Ignacio Ash, Inspector, Toledo Cacao Growers Assoc.
“In one bag, we take out twenty beans. We grade it, we cut it so that we know out of twenty beans we know how much is fermented, and how much is unfermented. So if any molds, right here we know that when we cut the beans. So that is the inspection we are doing when we get the cacao from the farmers.”
And while no farmer is getting rich off cacao, the cash often makes the difference between subsistence and advancement.
Pablo Cal, Chairman, Toledo Cacao Growers Assoc.
“Once a farmer begin to cultivate cacao, this means that he is investing in his land for a long term project. It means that this farmer will generate yearly income as long as the three, four years begin to produce the pods, and he would guarantee himself that he has something invested in the soil. And from there he will able to sustain the family and send the children, our children to school with better books and so on.”
Jose Sanchez
“One of the hallmarks of the entire process is accountability. Each batch of Maya Gold bars can be traced to the farm where the cacao was grown.”
To ensure consistent quality and marketing, the farmers have formed an association.
Christopher Nesbitt, Liaison Officer
“The Toledo Cacao Growers Association comprises one hundred and seventy-two different members scattered over fourteen villages and Toledo and Stann Creek Districts. For the year 2000, the association produced sixty-five thousand, four hundred and eleven pounds of cacao and brought one hundred and fifteen thousand, three hundred and thirty-one dollars and fifty-eight cents into Belize.”
John Kennedy
“We buy all the cacao that the Toledo Cacao Growers Association can sell to us. At the moment that’s thirty tons of cacao per year. We would like that to go up. We have committed and signed an agreement with them for the next five years that we will buy all their cacao up to one hundred tons per year. And if it’s greater than that then I would expect us to be able to buy it as well because the sales of Maya Gold are increasing at a rate of forty to fifty percent per year.”
Christopher Nesbitt
“Southern Belize in particular is naturally a wonderful place to grow cacao and cacao is biologically designed as an under canopy tree species. So farmers may grow cacao under several different varieties of trees that they maintain for different purposes, be it for food or fodder or timber or medicinals, and underneath that they have cacao. This creates a greater degree of bio-diversity seen in any other agriculture here in Belize.”
The company purchases organically grown cacao for one thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars a ton, a price fifty percent higher than the same cacao sold on the world market.
John Kennedy
“This is a very great premium. On the other hand we can justify paying this because there is a market for a bar that people know where it’s come from and they can be proved that when they’re eating it. The farmers are not being ripped off and the farmers are developing their lifestyles.”
Those lifestyles may not be as opulent as those who eat Maya Gold in Europe, but the bean that was traditionally used by the ancient Maya as money is today enabling the modern Maya to plan a richer future. Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.
Unfortunately, the Maya Gold bar is not yet available in Belize. Those who have been lucky enough to taste it, however, report that the dark semi-sweet confection, laced with a wisp of orange, is enough to drive even the most jaded chocolate lover to ecstasy.
