Photo credit: NASA
“The heavy damage to cacao, coffee, bananas, rice, sugar cane, African palm, cattle, corn and beans is under evaluation. It’s a lot; millions, perhaps billions of dollars... But the worst is human loss, and [loss of] houses and businesses.”
-- Jorge Betancourt, Sombra Buena in Honduras
Cocoa for the Future Replanting Project
The cocoa sector in Honduras and Nicaragua, especially in the Moskitia, Honduran North Coast and west to Copan into Guatemala and El Salvador, has suffered devastating losses from hurricane damage, with small farmer plantations, nurseries, processing facilities damaged or destroyed, on top of loss of lives and homes. Cocoa for the Future is not a humanitarian aid agency nor do we have the capacity to function as such, but we do have the connections and expertise to facilitate farm recovery and replanting for cacao growers within our areas of operation. As painful and uncertain as it is even from afar, recovery efforts offer us opportunities to strengthen relationships and improve growers’ capacity to produce fine flavor and heirloom cocoa, with extension and market support more intimately involved in production planning and in implementing price risk management mechanisms for increased transparency and improved farmer income and resiliency. Though communications are difficult during the pandemic and current class-4 Hurricane conditions [written on November 17, 2020], we’ve begun forming a coalition to design and implement our replanting project for recovery of cacao growers’ plantations within our network. The project will have a lifespan of no less than 5 years, reflecting the life cycle of the cocoa plant. Though this is in response to a dire emergency, routine, cyclical replanting is a good agricultural practice in any cocoa production plan. We have the opportunity now to provide plant stock of the highest, fine flavor quality and to focus on heirloom cocoa and native shade cover trees, which tend to be more adaptive to drought, local climate and soils, and provide for greater biodiversity on the farm. The project will also enhance tracking and verification of cocoa quality and authenticity from seed to port.
For farmers affected by the devastating Central American hurricanes of 2020, our hope is to join them in a long-term commitment to Cocoa for the Future.
Project Manager, United States: Jennifer Chesworth, Sombra Buena Coffee & Fine Chocolate
Project Manager, Honduras: Jorge Betancourt, Sombra Buena Coffee & Fine Chocolate
CENTRAL AMERICAN TEAM
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