Life stories from Peru: Adapting with cacao
Adaptation can seem daunting for rural businesses, but it’s a win-win. By adopting sustainable farming techniques like agroforestry, small-scale farmers can drive economic growth while protecting their land.
In the third episode in our “Life stories” mini-series, we head to the Peruvian Amazon to see adaptation in action. Join us as IFAD Recipes for Change chef Waldir Maqque meets with Ruth, whose farmers’ association has become a key player in the local cacao value chain with IFAD’s support.
Find out more: Life stories from Peru: Adapting with cacao - Episode 96
Transcript
This is Farms. Food. Future. – a podcast that’s Good for You, Good for the Planet, and Good for Farmers.
Brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
::Welcome to episode 96. I'm Brian Thomson.
::And co-presenting this edition, I’m Michelle Tang.
::Today we’re taking you to Peru, a country that's home to some of the world's finest cacao.
::That's the premium stuff, highly prized by chocolatiers worldwide.
::But growing it?
::Well, that's the work of about 90 thousand smallholder families.
::Families in rural areas who face limited access to markets, fragmented land ownership, and a lack of financial services.
And on top of that, climate change – longer droughts and heavier floods.
::But in the San Martín region, which is Peru's main cacao-producing area, a group of cacao farmers have figured out how to make better chocolate and survive longer droughts at the same time.
::Our story starts with the woman named Ruth, who grows cacao about two hours outside of the city in a district called Awajún, indigenous land in the Amazon.
::Until recently, Ruth was doing what cacao farmers there have always done: making cacao paste by hand, selling it in the local market.
::In small batches and not making much money.
Which is the story for most small-scale cacao producers in the Amazon – they need modern technology and access to credit, but those things are hard to come by.
::Plus, in Ruth's community, the Awajún people, women don't traditionally lead.
::Except now Ruth is Vice President of her association, which is made up of eighteen members.
::Thirteen of them women.
::And they're not making paste anymore.
They're making chocolate bars that they’re selling at regional fairs, getting legal trademark protection.
So, what changed?
::We'll hear all about it from Ruth and IFAD's latest Recipes for Change chef and youth influencer Waldir Maqque who's been learning cooking secrets and adaptation techniques from her community.
::As always, we want to hear from you – what you think about our stories and who you want us to be talking to – so please get in touch with us at podcasts at ifad dot org.
::You can also subscribe to this podcast via your favourite podcast platform and please don’t forget to rate us.
::Coming up, let's talk Cacao.
::You’re listening to Farms. Food. Future. with me Brian Thomson, and Michelle Tang.
Ruth grows fine aroma cacao in Awajún district, San Martín region – the heart of Peru's cacao production.
She and her husband work about half a hectare.
::In 2022, the Jempe Bakau Conasha Association – that's Ruth's group – received equipment co-financed through their business plan under IFAD’s Avanzar Rural project.
Now they work with an industrial roaster, refining machine, tempering equipment for chocolate, and refrigeration.
Everything you need to produce chocolate that meets health standards.
::They also got training. How to run a business, how to develop products and how to do quality control.
Because knowing how to grow cacao and knowing how to run a chocolate company are two very different things.
::They got sanitary registration from SENASA – that's Peru's agricultural health agency.
And trademark protection from INDECOPI – the intellectual property office.
You can't sell food products in Peru without those things.
::So, they went from informal local sales to having a legitimate business and selling at events like the Expomoyo coffee and cocoa festival.
::The association didn't just upgrade their chocolate production.
They changed how they farm.
::Because the weather in this region has been changing.
Droughts last longer.
And when the rain comes, it's heavier and causes flooding.
::Cocoa trees are sensitive – they need water, the right temperature and specific conditions.
So, Ruth's association started planting NATIVE trees alongside the cocoa trees, making them more resilient to drought by retaining moisture in the soil.
::And here's what makes this truly sustainable. They're using the entire cacao fruit.
::And here's what makes this truly sustainable: they're using the entire cocoa fruit.
Not just the beans – the shells, the mucilage, which is that sweet white pulp inside the pod that most people throw out.
::Everything gets used.
The pod shells can even be cooked – boiled, fried, added to dishes.
And the mucilage becomes juice or goes into desserts.
::That's traditional knowledge meeting modern business practice.
And it's part of what makes Peru's fine aroma cocoa special – traceability, fair trade practices, and now, complete sustainability.
::Our reporter, Rosa Gonzalez, spoke with Ruth about what this transformation has meant for her and the association.
::Welcome, Ruth. Could you tell us a bit about your role within the association and what kind of work you do there?
::My role as a woman and as a member, as part of the Jempe Bakau Association… well, I am the vice president of the Association, and I also work in the chocolate plant. Now I am teaching the younger people, because what we want is to see the association progress and for young people to also join, to become part of it so that they too can learn. So now I am in charge of the chocolate factory, which has more young people involved, and they are learning every day.
::And have you noticed any change in the climate in the seasons? Maybe more irregular rains since you were a child or in recent years until now?
::In the seasons yes, because before, it used to rain a lot in January, and now it's sunny at this time of year, right? So now it's changed, at this time of year the sun hardly ever shines, and it rains a lot, and when it does shine, it's much stronger than before. Now it's much, much stronger.
That also has consequences for the plants we are growing, doesn't it? While it is true that some plants also require a little moisture when we are first planting them, for example, cocoa, corn... every plant, every product we are planting always needs rain, water, so that it can take root in the plant. So, sometimes the weather works against us in that case, and we have to carry water there in backpacks and water them under the strong sun that we have now. But in fact, we work to overcome all that. And yes, we do have production, there is production, and we harvest it and feed ourselves every day.
::And what techniques has the project brought to improve your cacao production?
::The truth is that it has been a very useful support for us. At first, we struggled because we made chocolate by roasting the beans over a small flame in a pot, which didn't turn out perfectly. Some beans always got burnt, so the paste we managed to obtain by grinding them was a little bitter. It wasn't like today, where thanks to the project we have acquired some very important machines, including a roaster and a refiner. So now we make one hundred percent better chocolates and sales have also increased. And we now have our own brand of chocolate. Thanks to the project, we have also been able to obtain the percentage of our cocoa, of our chocolate that we now make, because we have a health registration, which means we can go anywhere and sell our chocolates, even outside Peru, right? Which is what we long for and want.
Well, cocoa shells can not only be used in dishes that we can eat, but also to make fertiliser and food for the plant that gives us the product. The fertiliser we make from cocoa shells is called bocashi, because we let the shells decompose completely, and we also add some plants such as finely chopped banana stems... We let it decompose and obtain a fertiliser called bocashi. We then use this to care for and fertilise the plants we consume, such as bananas, cocoa, maize, and everything else we grow.
::And I was also going to ask you about the agroforestry systems – could explain to us a little how they work and how they help to conserve the Alto Mayo Forest and the cacao?
::Yes, when it comes to agroforestry, the main thing we always keep in mind and always do is to ensure that every plant we consume, such as cassava and plantains, is grown under agroforestry ecosystems, always taking care of them. If I am going to cut down a tree for something that will be useful to me, then before cutting it down, I must have already planted another one so that there will continue to be more of this resource, right? So, the message is: let's try to take care of it by planting seedlings so that later we don't have to say, ‘No, there are no seeds.’ So, we collect seeds and plant seedlings so that we can continue to plant, and all the community does this.
Nowadays, not only my association, but the entire community, they already know and are accustomed to this way of life. They know that we must not only cut down trees and also plant enough for crops and for our homes. For example, I am under a tree that provides me with fruit and shade. It also protects my home. In terms of crops, there are trees that we plant as a perimeter fence around other plots, which not only protect us from the excessive winds we are experiencing today, but also help to prevent chemicals from entering my land if my neighbour suddenly decides to use them. So I work organically, I use organic products, and I consume organic products. Therefore, it is very important that every member, every community member, looks after these trees and that we already have them planted.
::And the trainings you've received within the project, how have these benefited the women of your community?
::Of course, the trainings and workshops have been very important because they have helped us address some of the root causes of gender inequality that have always existed, and still exist today, in our communities and homes. In the past, women often did not have the opportunity to participate in decision-making or take on leadership roles. Women were expected to stay at home, look after their children and their husbands, and not suddenly take on responsibility outside the home.
Now, however, there are women who lead associations or are part of a community board. This did not happen before. Men used to say, ‘No, I am a man, I have to do it... You women, that is your kitchen and your children, nothing else.’ But thanks to the workshops and training provided by the project, we have made significant improvements and recognised that women also have the right and the voice to be elected and to elect, which has led to a very important change in my association as well as in the native community, also here, because there are associations, apart from my association, that we have included and it has helped us a lot, so that now women like me are vice-presidents of their associations.
Thanks to the support of these workshops and trainings, things have improved a lot. There is now greater recognition that women also have the right to participate, to make decisions, and to take on leadership positions. This has led to an important change in my association as well as in the wider community.
Today, there are women leading associations, taking part in boards, and contributing in ways that were not possible before. In my own case, I am now vice-president of my association and head of the chocolate plant – something I never imagined I would be doing, let alone teaching others. But with the opportunities provided through this project, we have opened our eyes to see that women can also contribute to the household and go beyond traditional roles, learning and exploring new opportunities.
::And as head of the chocolate plants, how are you adding value to your brand? Shijam. So, can you tell us about the locally produced ingredients you use?
::Yes, everything we use here – like vanilla and lemongrass, the coffee too – it's all produced right here, within the community. Vanilla is a plant that, honestly, we took advantage of by bringing it out from the mountains. Because we'd always seen it growing wild in the mountains, but we never really knew that one day it could become as profitable as it is today. So we've taken advantage of that and now we've brought it into each member's farm plot. They all have it now. If you go and visit each producer, the very first thing you're going to see in their farm is the vanilla, because most people here have vanilla growing. So it's a fruit, or really an ingredient for chocolate, that is truly important. Sometimes people will say, "but why do you talk so much about vanilla?" Because, you know, sometimes as humans we're just used to buying vanilla, as they say, because we see it in a little jar, you buy it at the supermarket, and people are happy thinking that's vanilla... But what I'm really talking about is a vanilla that we ourselves plant right here in the community, and it's pompona vanilla. And it's something that we ourselves know how it grows, what needs to be done, why it grows the way it does. So, the pollination is done by hand, and it's also hard work for the producer, but the truth is we really benefit from it.
::And finally, what do you dream about? What is it you expect for your future and the future of your association?
::My personal vision is to want... Right now I know how to make chocolates, but I would really like to become a professional in chocolate. You understand what I mean? In other words, to know and learn so much more than what I know right now. So that's my vision… down the line, to become a one hundred percent expert in chocolates.
And the vision for us as an association, for my Jempe Bakau Conasha Association, is that... Right now we are an association, officially. We don't want to just stay there though. The vision is to become a cooperative, not just an association anymore, but to be a cooperative, to have even more innovations. Of course, it's true that today we're making chocolates at 60%, at 70%, but we would really like to take full advantage of the cocoa’s mucilage. We're taking advantage of it in part, but we want to utilize it 100%. Why is that? Because we don't have the right equipment, the kind of machine that would help us extract all of the mucilage properly. That's one thing we're still missing too. So we're hoping that moving forward there will be opportunities for continued support with the machines we still need. But honestly, with everything we have right now, we are more than grateful because we've already come such a long way.
::Thank you, Ruth and Rosa.
Apart from this being a delicious story, they're reinvesting profits into equipment, maintenance, utility bills, buying ingredients, and paying bonuses to members who work in the facility.
::They're looking to expand, and Ruth's story has caught the attention of a chef from a completely different part of Peru.
::You’re listening to episode 96 of Farms. Food. Future. with me Michelle Tang and Brian Thomson.
Waldir Maqque is a chef and content creator from Cusco, up in the Andes.
He's from a town called Viacha, almost 3 thousand 800 meters above sea level, with over a million followers on social media.
::He cooks the way his grandmother did – with clay pots, wood fire and traditional grinding stones called batán.
He grows his own ingredients on his chacra, his plot of land, and published a cookbook last year called ¡Qué riquito está!, traditional recipes and stories from the Sacred Valley.
::He visited Ruth to learn about Peru’s jungle flavours, and what he found was common ground.
Not just in how they use plants – using every part and not leaving anything to waste – but in how they work.
::In the highlands, they call it Ayni and Minka.
These are ancestral Andean systems based on reciprocity and mutual help.
::Ayni means "today you help me work my plot, tomorrow I'll help you work yours."
Minka is when the whole community comes together for collective projects, building irrigation channels or roads.
::Waldir spoke about his experience with our reporter Rosa González.
::Waldir, what does it mean to you to be here in the Peruvian Amazon, cooking with Ruth and her family?
::Being in the Peruvian Amazon for me means getting to truly know the cacao that represents this region so much. And also a bit of their coffee, but in this visit it’s been mostly the cacao. I know a little bit about it, just a little, but I've never had this kind of closeness with cacao before, and also with the families who work here in the region. It's a beautiful experience to be able to exchange ideas and learn from their culture, like Ruth's, who we visited today.
When I arrived, she was so welcoming and opened the door to her family and her home, telling me "Waldir, welcome, here we'll show you how everything is made, how you can use every part of the cacao." So we went to her farm, we harvested fresh cacao, and we brought it to her kitchen table. We lit the stove, we cooked all day long, and in the afternoon we went to the chocolate-making plant. There she showed us her process – how she makes chocolates, how she's been trained to work with cacao and how she now trains others too. She taught us everything from a kitchen perspective: how you cook the cacao shell, how you make chocolate, how you make a bonbon. We learned so much from her today, and she's an incredible leader in her community. She's a true master chocolatier. So for me, learning these things from a cook in this region means everything. I've learned to use 100% of the cacao: the shell, the seed, the mucilage. I believe that here they really know how to take full advantage of the product. I've been learning so much, and that means a lot to me – to be able to learn and also share it with others.
::What do you think about the recipes you cooked today? The sauteed jerky with cacao fruit shell and the sweet cacao bean pudding?
::The recipe really surprised me. Being able to cook a sauté with the cacao shell like this. We had to peel it properly, parboil it and make it soft, because as you can imagine, the cacao shell is pretty hard. Picture it like a tree trunk. But when you peel it and treat it right, it becomes soft. And then you can combine it with many dishes and discover new flavours, new textures. For me this means a lot, because I'm a food content creator. On my channels I talk about gastronomy, and learning to cook this way is just – wow!
::What surprised you the most about the way they cook? What made you say - wow?
::I think it's the mucilage inside, which is also a part that we normally waste. When we say cacao or chocolate, we just extract the seed, right? So being able to also use the mucilage to make a syrup or a beverage, a cocktail… I think that's where they're really maximizing the product, getting everything possible out of it.
::And what was it like cooking with Ruth and learning from her?
::Honestly, she's a very empowered person. I think she's had access to quite a few resources lately, and that's helping her grow and amplify her vision. She has many ideas that are coming to life. The fact that there are organizations helping her expand what she can do… I think that's really significant. She's an empowered woman who's getting the tools she needs right now to grow, and not just her alone, but her whole association too. She's built a company together with her partners from the community. For me it's incredible to see women leading like this, in this moment.
Beyond making traditional chocolate bars, she's been innovating quite a bit. On her farm I saw that she cultivates domesticated vanilla. She told me that in the past vanilla was a wild plant, but generations ago they started domesticating it and now they can grow it on their land. The work of cultivating vanilla has been about learning how to work with it properly. There's even a stage where they have to hand-pollinate the flowers one by one. They use these tools, like little sticks, to pollinate, because according to Ruth, there's a specific bee that comes to pollinate, but the bees don't always pollinate all the flowers. Since they need efficiency in their crops, they have to go flower by flower, manually pollinating them. That work is meticulous and requires daily attention. They only have certain hours in the morning to pollinate, because you can't pollinate all day – there's only a specific window of time. And then to add value by combining chocolate with vanilla, or with lemongrass, or with passion fruit… I think it's magnificent. To maximize their resources and add value to a product as special as chocolate, I think it's incredible. And I think Ruth's going to keep surprising us and discovering new things in her chocolate shop, as the great chocolatier that she is.
::Definitely. Waldir, you come from the community of Viacha, in Cusco. Do you find common ground between your Andean culture and Ruth's Awajún culture?
::I've found quite a lot, especially in how they work their fields. The common ground we share – since I come from the Peruvian highlands and they come from the jungle – is how we treat plants and crops. We work a lot with tubers, and they work with cacao, vanilla, passion fruit, coffee, and more. They treat their crops in a very special way and dedicate themselves to cultivation, and we do the same back home. The similarity I find is that just as they care for their crops with dedication, we do too. And we both always work together in associations, as a community. Back home we call it Ayni and Minka – these are ancestral Andean systems based on reciprocity and mutual help. Ayni is like "today you help me work, and tomorrow I'll help you work your plot", and Minka is when the whole community comes together for collective projects, like building irrigation channels or roads. I find that same spirit of community work here too.
::Why do you think it's important for young people to know these stories of producers who are adapting? What message do you want to give to your community of followers – millions of young people – about family farming?
::I think nowadays young people are thinking about leaving their communities or migrating to big cities for their studies. And I think it's fine to migrate, to learn, to go out and explore the world. But also with the vision of someday returning to where you were born with all the knowledge you've gained along the way, and applying it in your village. I think that's wonderful, because in my case I left my village at an early age. I learned about gastronomy, how to work with food, about products. And then with everything I learned from school, from university, you can return to your village and share with the rest of the community. It's very important because not everyone – not all young people – have access to education due to economic constraints, due to many factors. So I think the fundamental thing is that we learn, return to our roots, and boost our communities by sharing what we've learned as young people.
::And as a chef, have you noticed changes in foods or in the seasons?
::I think throughout my time working as a cook, what I've noticed is that lately there's a lot of produce that's grown with chemicals, because the market is very demanding. People and families sometimes try to get two or three harvests in one year. So I think the healthy food market gets compromised there. But on the other hand, when you can work with the seasons, waiting for the rains, waiting for the natural cycles… I think that way we know what we're eating, we know what we're really nourishing ourselves with. That's what I've been seeing a lot in this environment, and I hope that can change. That we can commit to a more sustainable and healthy agriculture.
::Thank you, Waldir and Rosa.
Check out Waldir Maqque’s videos on his social media accounts at Waldir dot M-A-Q-Q-U-E.
::And that brings us to the end of this episode.
::Thanks as always to our producers and editor here in Rome, Rosa González, Katie White, Francesca Primavilla and to Paolo Salvatore and Morgan Bolesta.
::But most of all thanks to you for listening to this episode of Farms Food Future brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
::We’ll be back in two weeks shining a light on disability inclusion in farming.
::And on the 4th Monday in December, don't miss our festive special and last episode of 2025.
::Stay tuned.
::This is farms, food, future, a podcast that's good for you, good for the planet, and good for farmers brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. You can find out more about all of our stories at www dot ifad dot org forward slash podcast.
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