To make a good chocolate you need a good cocoa. And a good cocoa is produced with respect for nature and biodiversity, and becomes even better if it contributes to the sustenance of small producers in the Southern hemisphere. For this reason Equoland, a fair trade chocolate factory in Calenzano (FI), has always relied on the direct import (and therefore without intermediaries) of natural cocoa grown in Ecuador: Cacao Nacional Fino De Aroma, a plant now in danger of extinction.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
To make a good one chocolate you need a good one cacao. And a good cocoa is produced with respect for nature and for biodiversity, and it becomes even better if it contributes to the sustenance of the little ones producers from the South of the World. For this Equoland, a fair trade chocolate factory in Calenzano (FI), has always relied on the direct import (and therefore without intermediaries) of natural cocoa grown in Ecuador: the National Fine Aroma Cocoa, now endangered plant.
Now however he is asking for help from all of us to make that this precious resource is not lost and to allow you to continue to produce excellent quality chocolate. But, before I explain to you how we can help the Tuscan cooperative, let's take a step back and tell you what are the reasons that make this cocoa (and consequently the chocolate produced with it) so good and particular.
First of all because it comes grown with strictly organic methodsin small vegetable gardens (huertas) where each plant enjoys a own ample room for growth (300 or 400 plants are sown in one hectare of land, compared to 1100 for intensive cultivation) and coexists with other plant species (Lemon, oranges and mandarins, bananas, coffee, papaya, other tropical species) that contribute to giving it a particular floral and fruity aroma.
In the transformation into chocolate, then, it is made even more "good" and fair by theshortening of the supply chain, due to the processing of the product directly in the laboratories of Calenzano.
Currently, however, the plants of Cacao National are endangered by the wild logging and from the sowing of cloned plant CCN-51, totally disrespectful of the biodiversity of the territory and the rights of producers, completely different from national cocoa as regards the organoleptic qualities, but certainly more profitable from an economic point of view and more resistant to pesticides.
Just think that if in the 1991 the agricultural census in Ecuador had counted 550.000 hectares of national cocoa of fine aroma Sabor Arriba, in 2009 only it remained 255.000.
All of this means that much of the chocolate we usually consume is actually made with genetically modified cocoa and is enriched with aromas of different types just to make up for lack of flavors and aromas contained only in natural cocoa.
To ensure that don't miss the taste of real cocoa it is therefore necessary to protect this precious raw material. But how can we actively contribute? Simple: adopting it!
Equoland, in collaboration with APOV (Association of Organic Producers of Vinces), has infatti lanciato il progetto “SOS Cocoa”, which allows you to adopt one or more natural cocoa plants with a small interest-bearing loan of 60 euros per plant, to accompany and care for it with technical assistance from the nursery to fruiting (about 4–5 years). The adoption can also be extended to an entire hectare, by paying a fee of around 1.000 euros.
The capital raised will allow you to produce good chocolate without being subjected to the blackmail of various intermediaries and without using poor or genetically modified cocoa qualities.
Ma what do "adoptive parents" gain? You can choose between interest in money and… obviously in chocolate! The money invested in the project are in fact interest-bearing loans of the law, which can also be paid with excellent chocolate Ciocador of Equoland or with other concessions in the purchase of all products of the fair trade in the Equoland workshops in Florence and Calenzano.
In short, with only 60 euros you can afford a cocoa plant of grow with respect for biodiversity and producers' rights and Equoland will be helped to carry out a project of great quality and solidarity: what are we waiting for ?!
Eleonora Cresci
