The initial situation
Land ownership in Uganda was particularly fragmented. Farmers worked small plots of land; after harvesting the cocoa pods and removing the beans, they carried out the fermentation and drying of the seeds in their own homes.These working conditions meant that farmers faced a high risk of losing the crop: theft and adverse weather conditions during processing could damage as much as 30% of the harvested cocoa. These losses led to considerable hardship within families and negatively affected the product as well, resulting in a lower selling price.
Our approach was not restricted to purchasing the cocoa. We worked to understand the fermentation processes as well as possible and then collaborated with local farmers to find the best way to build local structures in which to carry out those processes, significantly improving the farmers’ living conditions as a result.
The Icam Chocolate Uganda project
In 2010, we founded ICAM CHOCOLATE UGANDA Ltd to carry out major development work in Uganda, exporting our knowledge and expertise to the heart of Africa.
The project was split into two operations:
- training in modern farming techniques and sharing experience and best practices, developed over 30+ years of collaboration with the campesinos of Central America;
- the creation of an organized collection and processing center.
Above all, we consolidated our methods by collaborating with local communities and farmers in the Bundibugyo region, where direct oversight made it possible to maximize the intrinsic quality of this high-grown cocoa, processing it fresh in the new collection center.
