I went out to Puerto Rico yesterday for a quick field work trip. Puerto Rico is a precinct about 4 hours from Quito by bus, and I was going to chat with cocoa farmers involved in a direct trade relationship to see how they saw the relationship. These farmers produce mostly cacao Nacional, Ecuador's famous "fine flavor aroma" cacao that is unique to the country, and they sell it to a local chocolate maker who processes the beans- he ferments them, dries them, and then grinds them into nibs in Ecuador before sending some to the US to make chocolate there and keeping others in Ecuador for local chocolate sales. I wanted to know more about their trade relationship with him and wanted to interview them, so I headed out there on my own to record some interviews.
Getting out there was a bit of an adventure, which I usually enjoy. I hopped on a bus in the north of Quito that would take me to Puerto Quito (about 15-20 minutes away from Pto Rico), and I was told that I could easily hop on a bus to Pto Rico from there. When I got off, I waited for half an hour, and no buses went by! A lady selling quail eggs (3 small eggs in a bag with salt for $.50) asked me where I was heading, and when I mentioned I was waiting to go to Pto Rico, she said that she could set me up with a moto-taxi- she even negotiated for me, lowering the price by a dollar! So I moto taxi-ed over to Pto Rico, which was lovely- the heat there made the breeze coming through the open car really nice.
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| A mototaxi- not my photo- taken from: http://journals.worldnomads.com/moomazza/photo/28467/774318/Ecuador/Puerto-Lopez-Moto-Taxi |
At the co-op, we talked for a while about their trade relationship and why they like it. While I sensed an unequal, paternalistic relationship- the chocolate maker sets the price, tells them how much he'll need and when, etc.- I think it's a pretty cool idea. The cocoa growers sell their cocoa to him at double the price that they receive from intermediaries, and is helping them figure out the best system for fermenting their own beans- how many days, in what condition, etc. Many have gone to his place nearby and have checked out the way he ferments their beans, tried the miel de baba or syrup made from the pulp that surrounds the beans (which usually trickles off as part of the fermentation process), and it seems like they have a genuine relationship where the farmers want to produce a quality product that they'll be proud of and that will have him coming back to them for more, and where the chocolate maker is sincerely interested in helping these farmers develop infrastrucutre and receive a price that they deserve.
After the co-op visit and a quick lunch prepared by one of the farmer's wife (soup- I struggled to eat it all in the heat! and rice, a tomato-onion salad, and a fried egg for me), we headed over to a Colombian woman's finca that everyone thought I would be interested in. It's called Finca Sueños (farm/plantation of dreams), and Yamilé (the lovely woman there) tries to live mostly off of what her finca produces and some bartering and trading with local farmers and other producers from the sierra. She collects all of the (limited) trash at her place and sticks it into plastic water bottles, which she uses in cement as decoration (and as a way to use less cement and recycle the trash). She also makes a very basic, artisinal chocolate from her cacao which she sells to her friends in France (for baking purposes mostly) when she travels every summer. Yamilé and her gringa volunteer living with her were kind enough to take me back to the town center to wait for the bus, and then even to rush off onto the highway, chasing down a bus that we thought was the last bus back to Quito (it wasn't).
Sorry for my less frequent blog posting! I'll try to get back on schedule soon. Hugs to all back home!
How fascinating and how cool that Joe (I am assuming) has such a great relationship with the farmers and that they want to make such a fine product. I don't know, though, if this would work on a larger scale as it seems to me that this farmer/producer relationship is the key and bigger places would have to have many people go out onto the farms to build these sort of connection. I can imagine you on the motorcycle with your hair flowing out behind you. Did you have to hold on to the driver or are there other places to grip?
ReplyDeleteThat woman's finca sounds awesome! Is she able to sustain herself fully, though? You said she wanted to, but is that working out okay?
ReplyDeleteHa- Mom, my biggest dilemma was to hold on to him or not. I felt too weird, so I held on behind me! Yes, the limitations of direct trade relationships are definitely the difficulties of expanding business. Rach, Yamilé seems to mostly support herself just fine, although hers is by no means a case that could be duplicated- she has lots of foreign help (volunteers who pay to be there) and contacts. But food-wise, she mostly eats things from the finca and buys things like oil, toilet paper, etc. in the town.
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