I am collaborating with Miguel Beltrán from Bosques de Cacao Yariguies in Colombia to farm, produce and process chocolate.
I spent one year travelling around, Central, South American and the Caribbean conducting research about growing cacao, chocolate making and agricultural practices.

My time in Cuba was where I really gained an insight to the amazing benefits of agroecological farming and what it had done for Cuba considering USA’s embargo. Their agricultural revolution was inadvertently made possible due to USA’s embargo, what a response though.

My last stop before returning to Europe was Colombia, where I spent time volunteering at Miguel’s farm. I would say that was where I wanted and needed to be, as it was the preparation that was necessary to give me the impetus in embarking on the Cacao Elegguá project. I have still a lot to learn from Miguel and we are constantly collaborating to ensure that once we start processing, we will be producing quality artisan products.
We are very meticulous about our approach to ecological farming and it is great to have someone like him to exchange and enhance our knowledge base.  We need to do this in order to achieve the very best quality that we can. We aim to be the pioneers in setting high agricultural standards and not just concentrating solely on the balance sheet, but on people’s health.

I must say that Miguel and I share similar dreams of creating an agrotourism paradise, processing cacao with the best quality in mind, using zero chemical in our quest to ensure that our products are of the best quality and leaving minimal carbon footprint behind. We want to also provide a knowledge base when where people would learn and implement innovative practices, as we also conduct a huge amount research which can be shared.

An introduction to Miguel’s initiative