CACAO PRODUCTION IN HARMONY WITH NATURE

The cacao plant was first introduced in the early 1600´s by the Spanish to the island of Hispaniola (now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Several decades later, the French took possession of the island and brought with them new varieties of cacao. Small-scale, industrialised cacao farming began in the mid-19th century, making cacao an important export product for the country.

Until the late 1980s, Dominican cacao had a poor reputation on international markets, because the beans were not fermented and even today, unfermented cacao, known as Sanchez cacao, is exported as a cheap cacao product. To meet international market demand for premium quality cacao, Hispaniola cacao was developed, in which an appropriate fermentation process was introduced. This has significantly improved the quality of the cacao which is grown without herbicides or chemical fertilisers therefore making it ideal for organic certification. Today, the Dominican Republic is the world‘s largest exporter of organic cacao.