a new foundation

Photos provided by Erick Ac

As a part of the Lesley Family Foundation Grant, the Heirloom Cacao Preservation organized a field course dedicated to cacao agroforestry systems and post-harvest processes at Finca Ana María, Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Twenty-five producers and six technicians who support producers participated in the 4-day course through the implementation of the Cacao Discovery Guatemala Program and its intervention in the country to identify cacao producers and farms focused on preserving and producing cacao genetics with exceptional flavors.
The course was broken down into four core topics for the cacao farmers. All of the topics were implemented with the field school methodology, where the producers had the opportunity to share experiences and learn by doing at the Finca Ana María facilities.

Cacao Agroforestry Systems

The participants were received at the farm's facilities and began with a tour of the nursery, later the group took a guided tour of the farm's cocoa plantations and ended  the tour at the processing center.

​In the afternoon, the whole group met to participate in a talk on the principles of cocoa nutrition and the experiences of organic and conventional nutrition at Finca Ana María, given by Jorge Mario Monzon and Erick Ac, then we implemented a practice on preparation and application of nutrition to cacao trees.

Maintenance

During the course, farmers learned about best practices for pruning, shade trees, how to incorporate biodiversity, and analyzed different functional plantation designs.

​Farmers also reviewed the national strategies for the development of the cocoa chain in Guatemala and who are its main actors, and took their knowledge to the field for practical application.

They spent the afternoon in the cacao nursery to talk about the propagation of plants, selection of genetics and cloning material. Farmers learned various, practical grafting techniques in nursery and adult trees.

Harvest and Post-Harvest Processes

A key exercise was to identify cacao varieties that do not change color when ripe, this allowed us to show the sound technique to identify the optimal harvest moment. In this process, the groups had the opportunity to discuss and strengthen the criteria for harvesting.

All the harvested cocoa was transported to the processing center, where they had the opportunity to carry out all the activities of weighing, recording, filling boxes and taking initial pH and temperature data. At the same time, the producers learned about the registration instruments for batch traceability in the fermentation, pre-drying and final drying processes.

The Industry

Producers addressed the structure of a functional business model—learning to address the content of the production, financial, human resources, and marketing plans. Participants carried out an analysis and characterization of the cocoa and fine chocolate markets, and compared results for feedback.

At the end of the event, tools were delivered to the small producer organizations of Uaxactún and FICCI, RL. Each group was given 4 small pruning shears, 4 large branch pruning shears and 4 Victorinox knives for grafting.