Traceability from the farm
OUR OWN OPERATIONS
Xoco Gourmet owns and operates its own farms in Central America. Our main farm in Nicaragua is designed as a modern fruit orchard with high density planting, irrigation, and spacing to allow a small tractor to move between the rows. We continuously monitor the plants, water, and soil to provide the trees with the nutrition they need.
We share the knowledge we develop with our partner farmers via our team of technicians. Pruning, irrigation, and nutrition are pivotal elements in ensuring a good harvest.
We have planted all our trees from a selection of high yielding, autocompatible trees. Our target yield is more than two tonnes of cacao per hectare, compared with the average smallholder farmer’s yield of around 400 kilos per hectare.
Our farm is the only one of its kind in Central America and we hope it serves as an example in showing other farmers how to grow single-variety cacao that is well balanced with nature.
PARTNER FARMERS
In Honduras, Nicaragua, and Belize we have planted Mayan Red & Tuma Yellow cacao trees with our partner farmers. We take care of the grafting and early growth of the young cacao trees before they are sold and transported to the partner farmers.We provide technical assistance to each farmer regarding planting, growing, and how to obtain a good harvest yield. When it is time for the harvest, we organize and collect the cacao beans. These sit inside a white pulp within the cacao pod. After harvesting, the pod is opened and the pulp with beans is extracted. The sugary sweet pulp is what ferments and thus indirectly ferments the beans. Upon collecting the beans in its pulp using sealed milk containers, we transport the beans to our fermentation and drying centers. Xoco conducts the fermentation, drying, and sorting of the beans.
PARTNER FARMERS
In Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, we have planted Mayan Red & Tuma Yellow cacao trees with our partner farmers. We graft and early grow the young cacao trees before they are sold and transported to the partner farmers.
We provide technical assistance to each farmer regarding planting, growing and how to get a good harvest yield. At harvest time, we organize and collect the cacao beans. These are found in a white pulp inside the cacao pod. After the harvest, the pod is opened and the pulp with the beans is extracted. It is this sweet pulp that ferments and therefore indirectly the beans. After collecting the beans in their pulp in sealed milk containers, we transport them to our fermentation and drying centers. Xoco takes care of the fermentation, drying and sorting of the cacao beans.
Xoco pays the farmer a price that is substantially higher than the market price. In 2021, the average price paid was 1.5 x higher than the highest “fair trade” price and more than double the average local price.
We buy all the farmer’s cacao all year round at the farm gate. This is different from traditional “fair trade” programmes, where only the cacao that can be resold by the buyer is purchased.
Buying at the farm gate also eliminates any logistical issues preventing the farmer from getting to market. This is valuable in places where transportation is scarce, costly and difficult.
We are paying partner farmers for a better product. Xoco takes on the market risk so the farmers can focus on growing.
Our technical assistance programme also helps farmers modernize their farming techniques, which has a spill-over effect on other crops they may grow.
Xoco’s approach is an example for the chocolate industry:
The industry needs to up its game and become more involved in how cacao is grown. Cacao should be planted like any other fruit, for flavour and variety.