Cocoa, from raw material to forest conservation agent in Ecuador

Susana Wood Quito, 15 Mar Cocoa, that small bean with multiple properties and raw material of a thousand uses, transcends the culinary, food or cosmetic sphere to become an agent of forest conservation in Ecuador. In addition to being the first exporter of cocoa beans in the Americas, Ecuador became this year the pioneer in the export of fine organic cocoa with a deforestation free aroma. “PEPA DE ORO” IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE Known as the “Pepa de oro”, cocoa is one of Ecuador's main traditional export products, grown mainly by small producers. 80% of crops are concentrated in the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, Esmeraldas, El Oro and Santa Elena, while the rest is distributed in the provinces of Chimborazo, Bolivar, Cotopaxi, Pichincha, Azuay, Sucumbios, Orellana, Napo and Zamora Chinchipe. In January, the Association of Small Organic Agricultural Exporters of the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon (APEOSAE), located in Zamora Chinchipe, exported 3.8 tons of deforestation-free cocoa to Belgium last January. Production and shipping took place thanks to the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, which, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), implement the Comprehensive Amazon Program for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Production (ProAmazonia). To address climate change - specifically deforestation and forest degradation -, ProAmazonia takes action to transform production systems into more efficient and sustainable models that reduce pressure on natural resources. Thus, in Zamora Chinchipe he worked with 38 producers who own 347 hectares, of which 106 correspond to native forest under conservation. He provided them with technical assistance and support to implement good agricultural practices, used technology accessible for use on mobile phones and an open source application to map the farms where deforestation-free cocoa exported to Belgium came from. NEW OPTIONS This first pilot shipment for the Belgian firm “Silva Cacao” - dedicated to obtaining the highest quality cocoa beans in the world - has resulted in a pledge to purchase another seven tons of cocoa. In addition, it opened negotiations for other products, such as deforestation-free coffee with the firm “Lavazza”, from Italy, revealed to Efe Kathya Ortiz, from ProAmazonia. “By improving quality and performance in current productive sites through training, field schools, partnership strategies and commercial linkage, we prevent further expansion of the agricultural frontier,” he explained. The fundamental axis, he added, is certification and technological systems (traceability) so that buyers know the origin and evolution of the product in each of its post-harvest stages, one of the requirements that the European Union (EU) implements for their purchases. REGIONAL EXCHANGE The Traceability System is an initiative developed with the support of the European Committee for Training and Agriculture (CEFA), the German Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation (GIZ), within the framework of an EU-funded programme, which allows the organization of information on products, associations of agricultural producers and their centers of collection in order to trace its production chain from collection to sale. The information recorded by this traceability system includes producer references, socioeconomic information and location of the farm or plot, highlighting free deforestation data since 2014. This “in order to identify agricultural areas that have not cleared forests to increase their production and qualify as free deforestation production,” Ramiro Jaramillo, manager of MJTEC, the company that created the traceability software, told Efe Ramiro Jaramillo. Jaramillo, delegates from the Ministry of Agriculture and ProAmazonia will share, between tomorrow and Thursday in Bogotá (Colombia), their experiences in the event “Regional exchange of tools for monitoring deforestation in Amazonian cocoa production”. “We can work together to generate quality and environmentally friendly products,” said the manager of MJTEC, convinced of the importance of expanding forest conservation mechanisms “in a simple and accessible way for all.” CHIEF sm/rrt