The Cacao Oro de Nicaragua group was founded in 2014 to develop large-scale, certified cocoa plantations in Nicaragua. With the Company’s farm in the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua entering production, the future goal is to work with the region’s farmers to develop cocoa as a major economic crop for Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast.
Cocoa operations began on the 3,000-hectare farm, located in the municipality of Rosita on the Atlantic coast, and more than 2,000 hectares have been planted. The first crop was harvested in 2017, and total annual production will grow to approximately 4,000 metric tons by 2022. The farm, certified by UTZ, was developed using a full agroforestry model intended to rehabilitate land severely degraded by hurricanes and cattle farming.
Hectares
Metric Tons
Direct Jobs
Founded
We employ more than 285 full-time employees, who live in farm housing and the neighboring communities. Seasonal employment increases to more than 500 workers, which provides support for their broader families throughout the area.
Our operation takes full advantage of Nicaragua’s ideal farming conditions for growing superior cacao, a native crop in Latin America. Nicaragua offers rich affordable land, motivated labor, plentiful rainfall, and ease of export from ports on both the east and west coasts. The country also has strong laws to protect their rainforest lands, while respecting those territories owned by the various indigenous peoples in the country.
The Cacao Oro plantation is designed around a single, 3,000-hectare farm that supports our 2,000 hectares of cocoa production. Cacao Oro has planted more than 2.2 million cocoa trees on the 2,000-hectare La Rosita Farm and more than 250,000 hardwood trees for reforestation under our agroforestry model. Also a permanent nursery under sun shade cover has production capacity of 1,500,000 plants per year.
We have taken full advantage of both our proprietary genetic plant materials and recognized regional cocoa varieties to delivery cocoa beans with fine flavor characteristics in large production volumes.
Cacao Oro has concentrated on new agricultural innovation, proprietary farm technology, and equipment innovation, all of which are required by the farm’s operational scale.
Today’s global chocolate/confectionary industry has well-defined requirements for their supply chains that include: sustainable certification; full operational transparency; traceability; and environmental and social responsibility. Protection of existing rain forest, as well as continual reforestation efforts, are also key. These are Cacao Oro’s starting points as well.
The consumer demand of sustainable cocoa is also impacting the supply chain, with major chocolate producers reaching for a 100% sustainable supply-chain by 2020. ICCO has noted that only between 10% and 12% of total global production is certified as sustainable today.
Cacao Oro’s La Rosita farm has several neighboring indigenous communities that own large tracts of fallow land ideal for agriculture. These land volumes are in excess of 75,000 hectares. Based on planning discussions and small test projects with one indigenous community, we anticipate engaging with these communities to develop their own community farms for growing cacao, coffee, and hardwood trees.
With our nursery at full production, we can provide technical training, resources, farm inputs, and guidance for future sustainable certification. This agroforestry/reforestation model will generate living wages and the desired social benefits for these communities. Benefits can include: improved health care; schools; housing; and improved energy availability. Cacao Oro can provide the necessary access to global markets for their future sales of cacao and coffee. We believe it our responsibility that these elements be incorporated in our initiative called “Cacao Oro Outgrowers Ltd,” or COOL.
