Fortaleza del Valle- Calceta, Manabí

Are you guys sick of posts about cacao yet? I know I'm getting sick of writing about cacao for my thesis, but I still haven't gotten sick of visiting cacao cooperatives or of seeing new aspects of the cacao chain. If only my thesis could just be a quick recap of my adventures without the boring stuff like "background information", "theoretical framework", "organization", "content", and "Spanish grammar". I could tell stories about cacao forever!

I left early Friday morning for Quevedo, in the Los Ríos province, to meet up with my fearless guide, Gerardo, who works with cacao farmers in Vinces. He brought along a friend, and we all hopped into a rental car and drove west through the upper tip of the Guayas province into the province of Manabí.

We were heading to Ecuador's most successful Fair Trade certified cocoa co-op, called Fortaleza del Valle. They're a 2nd tier organization in the FT (fair trade) framework, which means that they purchase their cacao from five smaller associated organizations in the region. Their co-op involves about 900 cocoa farmers. Fortaleza has some well-known clients, including Tcho, located in San Francisco, and Theo, located in Seattle. They also sell to Pronatec, a Swiss client, and to AgroIndustria, a Mexican client.

Fortaleza seems to be a rarity in the FT world- they sell 100% of their cacao along FT chains, whereas most cocoa co-ops sell between 10-20% of their cocoa on FT chains, and sell the rest to conventional clients, who can't put the FT label on their chocolate (and the co-ops don't receive the premium). FT benefits mean that FT certified co-ops are guaranteed a minimum price of $2000/MT (metric ton- 1 metric ton = 2204.6 lbs) and a premium of $200/MT. Since conventional world cocoa prices haven't fallen below $2000, the guaranteed minimum price isn't that important (yet- it will be if/when cocoa prices fall), but Berto, the president of Fortaleza, estimates that they've sold about 800 MT since their initial FT certification, which means they've received around $160,000 in FT premiums, which isn't an insignificant amount.

Fermentation boxes lined up

Fermentation boxes, bags filled with cacao en baba below

Bees buzzing around the bags because of the sweet baba

Fortaleza del Valle does all of the post-harvest processing at the co-op, including fermentation (this means they buy their cocoa en baba or "wet", covered in the sweet mucilage, rather than already dried), pre-drying, drying, and packaging. The fermentation takes place in these wood boxes, and the cocoa is transferred into the lower boxes every few days. You can tell that the co-op buys the cocoa en baba because of all of the bees swarming around the sweet baba that's leaking through the bags!

Pre-drying, under a roof- it had lightly rained earlier

The pre-drying comes after the fermentation, to get the cacao down to a 10-15% humidity level. The cocoa is laid out in these flats to dry in the sun, and it can be hurridly pushed under cover if it begins to rain.

Cacao drying in its "greenhouse"

Once the cacao reaches the desired humidity level, it's set out for the serious drying. This stage takes place in a mini greenhouse. The cocoa is all spread out under plastic tarps to avoid rainfall and to capture the heat from the sun. Once it reaches a 7% humidity level, it's ready for export.

Note the organic and "comercio justo" (FT) certifications

Cacao being scooped into bags

Stacked up with the scale to weigh the bags at 150 lbs

From there, the cocoa is scooped into bags that weigh 150 lbs. I learned lots about the export process that I wouldn't have assumed to ask had I not visited.

Cacao in bags, ready for export

Jute bags- more expensive

Plastic-ish bags- recognize the FT label? What does it look like to you? Berto was too concentrated on the negative space, and never had identified it as a person with their hand up (in solidarity?) before!

For example, the bags for export are a big deal. There are these nice jute bags, but those are apparently pretty expensive ($2/bag), which adds up when you consider the fact that the smallest export container fits 13 MT (~28,660 lbs), so you need a little more than 191 sacks, which is already $382. There are cheaper sacks, but they don't hold up to export quality as well. I thought that the holes in the bags were a sign of their lack of durability, but I was told that those are intentional to be able to quickly take the dried cocoa out to sample it for quality.

Obligatory photo of cocoa beans drying

USAID/Tcho partnership for artisan chocolate making machinery

Finally, Fortaleza has received lots of help through a Tcho/USAID partnership, which installed a laboratory at the co-op site so that Fortaleza can do small scale chocolate production to learn more about bean quality.

I still have my reservations about FT, and so does Berto (he was invited to Seattle and was shocked at how expensive the chocolate bars; he said, "why do they insist on fighting so much over the price if they sell it so expensively?"), but Fortaleza is definitely an example of a co-op that has successfully integrated itself into the FT system.