que rico el cacao

It’s time to take a break from my researching to analyze and share a bit more about my project. While I’ve always been interested in fair trade and worker rights (which I didn’t realize until I went to Chile and worked with the heladeros in their union), I don’t think I would have really thought to do a whole project on it (my interests had been focused more on economic informality and the effect that it has on workers) without an Equal Exchange chocolate bar given to me by Jen after finishing up the Spanish tutoring with her kids. After reading more about Equal Exchange and learning that their cacao mostly comes from Peru and the DR (also after receiving my free stickers), I connected it with a project that I saw had been started previously here at Yanapuma.

I spent the first day researching fair trade certification and organic certification and learning about international certifying agencies and regional agencies, and learning about their requirements, their benefits, and their costs. It’s a complicated process, and the requirements are different, depending on the type of cacao. I also learned about the different kinds of cacao (crillo, forastero and trinitario + arriba, local only to Ecuadorian rainforests), and the harvesting, fermenting and drying process (and the problems farmers often have with these processes). The requirements also vary depending upon the size of the finca, the farm, and the how the workers are treated (ie are they family? Paid workers? Children forced into slave labor?). So today I started specific research on the communities that Yanapuma already works with, and I’m in the process of finding out the stages of cacao harvesting that the communities are in, and whether they can even begin to consider certification. It seems like most will need the help of an expert agronomist to slowly implement changes in their planting, tending and harvesting processes, though I hope to learn more about the actual agricultural process and more about their education system to help figure out the best way to impart the information. Also crucial will be the level of enthusiasm and understanding of the communities themselves- mostly I think I’ll be working in Bua, Caimito or Siecoya.

So that’s my work here. The office itself is part of a larger building, but it’s large, spacious, and tactfully decorated. There are lots of hung Ecuadorian tapestries, wide windows, and it has good natural lighting. There is free coffee/tea/bottled water, which is nice too. It’s mostly pretty quiet- people are researching independently, but you can definitely talk. The Spanish school is part of the same office, but in a different room. Mostly people set up their computers and research, taking notes, read info in the binders, or are typing reports. Those doing participatory research are always doing it in communities, so most people here are doing office work or researching.

And the ‘weon’s keep accidentally slipping out. I have yet to let a ‘no sé, po weon’ slip, but I think it will happen soon enough. Desafortunadamente, Quiteños lack much slang, but I’m saying ‘que chevere’ as much as possible.