Twenty farmers from Ocumare de la Costa, 120 km northwest of Caracas, produced 5,000 kilograms of cacao without using agro-chemicals in their cultivation, qualifying it as an “organic product” for the certifying entity Biolatina, based in Peru. “It was a joint effort, over nearly three years, of the association of farmers, government agencies and our (non-governmental) Tierra Viva Foundation,” project director Moisés Mérida told Tierramérica.

“Now we hope to open a market for this in the United States and Europe, where it can sell at 10 to 15 percent more than conventional cacao,” he said.

The project aims to “reach all farmers near the Henri Pittier National Park,” an unusual mountain rainforestalong Venezuela's central Caribbean coast, where Chuao cacao is produced, one of the most aromatic in the world.