How Blockchain is helping former coca producers in Colombia to grow fine cocoa.
Colombian economist Sergio Figueiredo has lived in Canada for nine years, but it was not for that reason that he strayed from the great social problems in his homeland, Colombia. After working for several years in the international financial market, in 2017 he created the Choco4Peace NGO (instagram.com/chocoforpeace), to assist the small cocoa producers in the Tumaco region, department of Nariño, at the Colombian-Ecuadorian border, better known as the Pacific pearl.
The location is known as one of the largest coca producing regions in the world. According to data from that country’s government, when the armed struggle ended in 2016, there were 100,000 hectares of coca plantations across the country and 20,000 in Tumaco alone. On a government initiative, 77,000 families voluntarily agreed to remove all coca from their properties and start planting fine cocoa, as the region has one of the best terroirs in the world for growing cocoa.
Choco4Peace executive director, Sergio Figueiredo, in the center, wearing a hat, with some of the cocoa producers served by the NGO.
“In Colombia, there are approximately 38 thousand cocoa producers, 90% of whom are micro producers. And about 70% of them are below the poverty line, living on just $ 2 a day. This contingent has no access to qualified education, bank credit, insurance for their crops, decent roads, nothing. On the other hand, we found that there are investors interested in offering capital, either through microcredit, or by the central banks of their countries. We live in a real paradox”, says Sergio.
Blockchain
“Using the Blockchain platform, Choco4Peace works to unite the two ends. With the use of technology, our goal is to empower this category, especially female producers, young people and Indians in the region”, he explains.
Tumaco is currently receiving thousands of illegal immigrants from Venezuela. “It is necessary to welcome them and prepare them, so that they can be able to work with fine cocoa”, says Sergio.
Sergio Figueiredo is Colombian, resident in Canada, and works to change the reality of hundreds of cocoa producers.
“The Choco4Peace project in Colombia is a public-private partnership. The government offers land for planting fine cocoa and investors, NGOs and international foundations have joined together to create a small local community, with a hospital, school and all the infrastructure,” he says.
The project is still being implemented and Blockchain will assist in building the infrastructure, improving connectivity so that families can grow the best quality cocoa, having access to continuing education, banking services, and everything that involves the digital economy.
“The best of all is that, if it works, we will be able to replicate the project in several other parts of the globe that also produce cocoa, including Brazil. It is technology helping to create transparency and traceability for consumers who can access information, without difficulties, whenever they desire to know more about the production”, he concludes.
Credit photos and videos: Choco4Peace
