Each of Xoco’s chocolates can be traced to the specific farmer. We pay our partner farmers well above market prices for their better, single variety cacao. We buy all their cacao directly from the farm even when conditions are rough.
These 11 farmers contributed to this batch (MR190326)
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Short Story
In 2018, Miguel was one of our best cocoa farmers and he remains up there. With high ambitions, lots of dedication and hard work, he always wants more. Miguel has really benefited from the collaboration with Xoco, and he is very optimistic about the future and he is proud of the opportunities he can now give his children.
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Short Story
In Angel’s opinion, the best thing about being a cocoa farmer is to cut the perfectly ripe fruit off the tree. It leaves you with a very satisfying feeling. Even though work takes a lot of his time, he tries to focus on other things as well. Now and then, he likes to play soccer with a few friends – partly for the fun of it, and partly to stay healthy.
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Short Story
Due to work, Hector doesn’t normally have a lot of spare time. But when the COVID-19 lockdown hit, he was forced to stay at home. He really enjoyed the possibility to spend more time with his kids: They are nine and four years old, and he is happy that he has had this opportunity to spend more time than usual with them.
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Short Story
Besides 12 acres of cocoa trees, Gumercindo has a field of orange trees and a few banana plants. He hopes that he will be able to increase the production of cocoa, and he is eager to learn from Xoco's technicians when they come by every month. He gets up at six in the morning and spends the day working himself and supervising his employees at the plantation. Sometimes in the afternoon, when the work is done, he picks a couple of oranges for his wife, because he knows it makes her happy.
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Short Story
The two brothers, Luis and Victor, spend a lot of time together and they have a healthy competition with each other. They tend to compete with each other in many aspects, but they are never afraid to help each other if needed. Since they don’t have kids yet, they both have time to work on other things besides their cocoa trees: Victor has a bike repair shop which means that they often go ride their bikes in the beautiful nature that surrounds their farm.
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Short Story
Natividad is the father of ten children, and can count on the oldest ones to help him at the farm when needed. He likes to think about how different his two favorite trees are. On one side, the African oil palm is bushy and bulky. On the other side, the cocoa tree is quite small and with slender branches. "It’s the same with your kids" he says, "despite their differences, you love them all!”
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Short Story
If you like the fruit rambutan, you would want to visit Felix and his wife Glorias farm. Besides their cocoa trees, they also have rambutan trees, which provides them with a lot of fruit that they can sell on the local market. Although they are both involved in the daily work at the farm, their son is slowly taking over, and one day they will leave it all for him. Until then, they want to do their best and make sure that their son has the best starting point.
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Short Story
José grew up on a cocoa farm. Back then, his father used to show him how to prune and get rid of weed in the right way. He didn’t always pay much attention to his dad, but now that he is managing a farm himself, he remembers much of the stuff his dad told him.
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Short Story
Suyapa is one of those people that always surprises you with her positive attitude. She cannot say exactly where it comes from, but she says that it helps to work in close collaboration with mother nature, to be close to her family, but she also says that her happiness might come from her favorite dish, chicharrón con yuca.
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Short Story
The two brothers, Luis and Victor, spend a lot of time together and they have a healthy competition with each other. They tend to compete with each other in many aspects, but they are never afraid to help each other if needed. Since they don’t have kids yet, they both have time to work on other things besides their cocoa trees: Victor has a bike repair shop which means that they often go ride their bikes in the beautiful nature that surrounds their farm.
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Short Story
Apart from the Mayan Red cocoa trees, Antonio also has different fruits at his farm, which he sells at the local market. He is really interested in the different plants and how they grow differently. Because of that, he is always very interested in the agricultural training that he receives from the Xoco staff when they come by to help him optimize the cocoa trees’ production.