APPCACAO organized the X National Women’s Conference for Cacao Producers in collaboration with its partner cooperatives, la Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera y de Servicios Oro Verde Ltda. and the Cooperativa Agraria Cacaotera ACOPAGRO.
Partners Rikolto, Uniterra, CECI, WUSC-EUMC, the Inter-American Foundation, the Regional Government of San Martín, and the Programa SeCompetitivo of the Swiss Cooperation – SECO also supported this event.
Near El Sauce in San Martín, Perú.
Upon the close of the National Women’s Conference for Cacao Producers, we reflect on the time we shared together in Tarapoto and the work that lies ahead.
During our first day together, in the city of Lamas, we talked about challenges in the sector, listened to success stories, and elected a new leadership committee for the National Women’s Network of Cacao Producers.
We spent our second day in the city of Juanjuí, where we visited our partner cooperative, ACOPAGRO.
Mariela Wismann, from our partner organization Rikolto, poses with ACOPAGRO’s fine flavor cacao. Participants had the opportunity to try the dried beans and observe flavor characteristics.
Participants received a full tour of the ACOPAGRO facilities, learning about quality control, traceability, warehouse organization, and certifications.
Hernán García, from our partner cooperative ACOPAGRO, describes quality testing protocols.
We also entered the ACOPAGRO laboratory to listen to a detailed explanation of the chocolate making process, both for quality analysis and commercialization.
Hernán García, ACOPAGRO engineer and chocolate maker, expressed the importance of organizational transparency and collaboration, stating:
“Here at ACOPAGRO, there are no organizational secrets; we share our knowledge because we believe and consider that the more people there are, the more organizations there are that know how to work with high quality and organic cacao, the more Peru will be recognized as a high quality cacao origin. This has to be the message in all organizations that work with cacao: in the end, clients will not be saying that the cacao from a particular cooperative is high quality. They will be saying that Peruvian cacao is high quality.”
Leftover cacao husks after being winnowed, or separated, from the cacao bean (left) and pure cacao in a refiner (right) at the ACOPAGRO laboratory in Juanjuí, San Martín.
Later that day, we had the opportunity to visit a demonstrative farm focused on agroforestry systems, with a special focus on native wood species. Participants were able to hear a success story of female entrepreneurship within ACOPAGRO’s model as a cooperative. All ACOPAGRO members receive technical assistance and logistical support when it comes time to harvest their crops.
Participants listened to the presentation in an outdoor classroom format, viewing the farm and discussing the potential for implementation of similar systems within their own cooperatives.
Returning to the ACOPAGRO facilities, participants listened to a presentation by Wendy Rodriguez, who is in charge of organizational strengthening. She provided an overview of ACOPAGRO’s evolution over time, services available to their members, current challenges they face, and their goals for the future.
Wendy Rodriguez of ACOPAGRO presents about social programming.
The third and final day of the X Women’s Conference for Cacao Producers took place in El Sauce at the Eco-Park La Soñada. Participants had the opportunity to visit the Laguna Azul and see a successful model of ecotourism, learning about medicinal plants native to the region, butterfly species, oil extraction, and the commercialization of cosmetics with natural ingredients.
Participants crossed the popular Laguna Azul in order to arrive at the Eco-Park La Soñada.
The space offered a peaceful environment to close the conference and reflect on lessons learned, calls to action, and how the National Women’s Network of Cacao Producers might continue to improve in its promotion of gender equity at the cooperative level.
Participants had the opportunity to reflect on what they learned during the National Women’s Conference for Cacao Producers as well as how they plan to take action during our last day at the Eco-Park La Soñada.
While we celebrate the close of a successful weekend, the time spent together represents a new beginning for the National Women’s Network of Cacao Producers. We are excited to continue collaborating with these female leaders as well as our partner organizations to bring gender equity to the forefront of future programming.
Participants gather on our second day of the conference.
We would like to thank the participants for all of the efforts they made to be present at this event, and again, we would like to thank our partner cooperatives and partner organizations for their continued support.