Impact - Cacao Latitudes

Learn how we think

OUR FOCUS

We have a long history of establishing partnerships with farmers that go beyond commercial relationships. These farmer partnerships focus on three areas of impact at origin.

Social

We seek to contribute to the integral development of cocoa growing communities by considering their unique needs and identifying initiatives that improve quality of life for producers and their families.

Environmental

We are committed to conserving the environment in and around the cocoa growing communities we work with, focusing on the protection of natural resources through improved farming techniques.

Economic

We focus on improving the health of our supply chain through direct relationships that benefit farmers with fair prices and resources and benefit our clients with a sustainable supply of high quality beans.

Learn how we work

OUR METHODS

We work towards social, environmental and economic impact by implementing sustainability programs and facilitating transparency and open communication between the farmer and chocolate maker.

We Initiate Innovative Sustainability Programs

We initiate and manage a wide variety of sustainability projects at the farms we work with to improve quality and productivity. We start by engaging farmers to implement good agricultural practices and progress to financing larger community improvement projects.

Common initiatives at origin include:

Training on disease reduction methods and pruning techniques for increased yield
Distributing shade and fruit trees for farm diversification
Implementing organic fertilization and composting processes to reduce environmental impact
Financing irrigation systems and post-harvest facilities to improve community infrastructure

cacao farmer — Farmer practices a new pruning method for increased productivity

cacao trees — New batch of cocoa trees for a farm rehabilitation

You Can Access Advanced Traceability Resources

We believe in complete transparency for chocolate makers, and offer a number of advanced traceability resources for those who want to go beyond basic insights on origins. One level of transparency comes from sharing information and another comes from seeing the locations and context of farmers through technology.

Advanced traceability resources include:

GPS mapping of the farms you source from
Post-harvest fermentation time and method
Post-harvest drying time and method
Advanced flavor notes

GPS mapping of farms at origin — GPS mapping of farms at one of our origins

Together We Can Implement Custom Projects

We love working with chocolate makers who have big ideas on changing the world by doing the right thing at the source. Tell us how much you’re interested in investing and we’ll use our extensive expertise at our origins to help you shape the strategy and execute a successful implementation.

Types of initiatives we support include:

Productivity and quality improvements on the farm
Environmental process improvements on the farm
New cacao product development, or custom product enhancements
Community infrastructure and quality of life improvement projects