Silva-cacao

26/01/2025

Happy to share our knowledge!

Navigating the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR): Key Insights for the Cocoa Industry 🍫

Are you a chocolate maker or part of the cocoa supply chain? Join us for an in-depth session that will help you navigate the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and its traceability requirements!

📅 Date: Thursday 6th february
🕒 Time: 13:00 - 14:15
📍 Berlagezaal, Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam

💡Moderator: Jack Steijn, Co-founder of Chocoa
🗣️Speakers:
Meriam Wortel, Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit (NVWA)
Stephanie Gerteiser, Rainforest Alliance
Katrien Delaet, Silva Cacao

🔑 What to Expect:
Expert Panel Discussion: Learn from industry leaders about the role of competent authorities, essential compliance tools, and real-world insights from a seasoned cocoa trader.
Focused Breakout Sessions: Dive deeper into key compliance areas, including readiness assessments, identifying compliance gaps, and finding the right partners, tools, and resources for full EUDR integration.

This is a unique opportunity to gain actionable insights that will help you plan strategically and ensure successful EUDR compliance!

Don’t miss out on this chance to future-proof your business and stay ahead of the regulatory curve.

Tickets: https://www.chocoa.nl/tickets

10/01/2025

Plan ahead with easy!

🍾 The start of a new year calls for fresh plans and a clear agenda.
In the world of cacao, careful planning is key - especially when it comes to navigating the seasonality of cacao production.

🍫⏳🗓 For chocolate makers, knowing when a cacao harvest begins and ends is just the start. Timing is everything, and securing the best beans requires staying ahead of the game.
That’s why we designed a cacao calendar to guide you through the year. It keeps track of harvests and even highlights when pre-bookings open -your perfect partner for smart planning.

WHY IS IT SMART TO PLAN YOUR PURCHASE AHEAD?
• It ensures you to have fresh crop available throughout the year.
• It allows you to secure your lots with different quality profiles.
• It permits you to plan your volumes ahead.
• It permits you to secure your purchase price.
• by purchasing ahead, we create more stability with our partner producers, which allows us to increase our positive impact even further.

🕙 Cacao is a year-round adventure, and SILVA’s Cacao Calendar is your go-to guide for staying in sync. This carefully designed resource outlines the annual cycle, pinpointing the best moments to pre-book and key harvest milestones to follow.

🧩 🤓👨🏽‍🌾🌳🍫 Built on our expertise, this calendar is designed to support smarter, more strategic cacao purchasing. While agriculture and logistics often bring unexpected twists, we’ve crafted it to serve as a clear and dependable guide for the year ahead.

🏆 By planning ahead, you not only set yourself up for success but also support greater stability for our partner producers -amplifying the positive impact we create together.

📞 We love to hear from you, and be your personal support to plan a great chocolate year 2025!

22/12/2024

CACAO FRUIT POWDER - Unlock your own creativity

😋 Now that you know our new natural sweetener with a twist and it’s identity, it’s time for practice.

🤓 Good to know about before you get started
 Cacao fruit powder dissolves effortlessly in hot water
 Low humidity (+- 2%)
 Natural flavours of tropical fruits, intense acidity, a touch of sweetness
 Potential is way beyond health & sugar replacement

🍫 CHOCOLATE: The low moisture content and dry format make it a fantastic ingredient for chocolate-based creations. In our lab we used a classic 70% chocolate recipe and swapped out the sugar for an equal amount of cacao fruit powder.
The result: A naturally sweet, zesty chocolate with fruity notes reminiscent of green apple. This zero sugar bar is 100% crafted solely from cacao. How cool is that?

👨‍🍳 FILLINGS, CARAMELS, GANACHES: chocolate hero Mario Vandeneede -Chocolatoa - created a caramel filling. Mario began by blending equal parts hot water & cacao fruit powder, recreating the original cacao pulp. The transformation from powder to a shiny nectar compote became the foundation for a show-stopping caramel. While powder alone has a tangy kick, the rehydrated pulp revealed a beautifully balanced profile with tropical notes of pear, mango, papaya & pineapple -perfectly echoing the essence of fresh cacao pulp.
The result? A praline filled with a luscious, tropical caramel. The results were absolutely phenomenal!

🍦🍨ICE CREAM, GELATO, SORBET: we blended cacao fruit powder in the base of ice cream, and for sorbet dissolved in hot water.
The results? A creamy, smooth treat with a lively, fruity edge. The cacao fruit’s natural sweetness and tangy notes delivered a refreshing tropical twist, reminiscent of pineapple with a splash of citrus

💡 Cacao Fruit Powder’s versatility is unmatched. Its fruity flavour and convenience make it the perfect ingredient for countless creations in baking, desserts, pastries, mousses &other sweet treats, and even cocktails & beverages.

📞 Curious? Reach out for samples.
❤And we count on you discover the endless possibilities. Your feedback means a lot to us . We’d love to hear about your findings & creations!

13/12/2024

CACAO FRUIT POWDER - Unwrapping the full identity

🆕 The newest addition to our portfolio is a fascinating cacao fruit powder, crafted from nutrient-rich cacao pulp for a fruity, flavourful boost.

👩‍👩‍👦‍👦 Cacao beans come from Haciendo Palo Santo in Cerecita Valley, Southern Ecuador, owned by the Sáenz Family. This innovative cacao plantation, is organic certified and the family has developed advanced agricultural practices to protect natural resources while enhancing productivity. Esteban Jr. leads the farm, a craft refined over the years by his father, while Maria & Claudia manage the business operations, ensuring consistent, high-quality production of uniform cacao beans, pulp & powder.

🏭 The cacao manufacturing facility is right on the plantation, to guarantee maximum freshness, quality and food safety. They specialised machinery to extract pulp and streamline production is an in-house development!

TRUST THE PROCESS
🧤 Harvesting & Extraction: cacao pods are harvested, promptly opened at the on-site facility to extract the fresh pulp, and immediate processed to prevent oxidation and preserve the pulp’s natural flavour & nutritional value
🏭 Pasteurisation: fresh pulp is homogenised, pasteurised, and cooled to maintain quality. After pasteurisation, the pulp is transported to another facility to process into powder.
♨Spray-Drying : liquid pasteurised pulp is sprayed into a chamber where hot air rapidly removes moisture, transforming it into a fine, aromatic powder while retaining its natural flavour. To ensure stability and texture, and avoid crystallisation & agglutination, maltodextrin is added. In this process, 15% maltodextrin is blended with the cacao pulp.
📦 Packaging: powder is packed in eco-friendly 7 kg cardboard boxes, with sealed inner portions for freshness & convenient handling.
🚢 Storage & shipping: Boxes are stored in a dry environment at room temperature, ensuring a shelf life of up to 24 months.
The result of the precise process: a white, fine sweet-tasting fruit powder with low moisture content (below 2%) rich in nutritional value, with endless applications.

📣 Do you have already some ideas for a new creation?

29/11/2024

Cacao fruit powder: a natural sweetener with a twist

The cacao fruit is more than meets the eye, a true natural treasure packed with goodies. Depending on its genetics and how it’s processed the fruit has following composition:

🔸 Cacao pod: 67 – 76%. An often overlooked resource ideal for compost, biodegradable packaging or even creative crafts
🔸 Bean Husk: 2,1 – 2,3%. The Thin, brown outer shell removed during processing of the beans, rich in fiber and protein can be used for animal feed, organic mulch, biochar, or upcycled for tea or flower.
🔸 Cacao pulp: 8,7 – 9,9%. The sweet, tanger layer around the beans is essential for fermentation, and is packed with anti-oxidants and vitamins. It can be upcycled as sweetener for juices, jams, syrups, powders, smoothies, and more.
🔸 Cacao beans: 21-23%. After fermentation, drying, roasting, these are the cornerstone for all chocolate cravings.

❤ 🍫💡Every part of the cacao fruits holds an untapped potential. Beyond sourcing expectation beans we’re dedicated to maximising the value of the cacao fruit through recycling, upcycling and sutainable innovation that benefits the whole supply chain wile honouring flavour, forests, farmers and their future.
❗📣 We are very excited to launch together with our partners from Hacienda Palo Santo, the Sáenz Family, a new fascinating cacao fruit pulp product: not a liquid, not a frozen but a powder of the cacao fruit pulp. The spray-dried cacao fruit powder is crafted from nutrient rich cacao pulp for a fruit flavourful boost and has a range of applications: chocolalte, fillings, ganache, gelato, drinks, smoothies, etc.

Why we choose the cacao fruit powder?
⚖ Powder is stable, has a longer shelf life, and can be used for multiple creative applications, even in chocolate.
♻ This upcycled by-product contributes to zero-waste solutions, is eco-friendly packed and compact, reducing carbon footprint during transport
👩‍🌾 Creates additional revenue for farmers
😋 A Nutrient-rich sweetener packed with anti-oxidants and bold fruit flavours, ideal for health and sport-application

💪 The new innovation is possible thanks to the continuous efforts of our partners of Hacienda Palo Santo. Stay tuned for a detailed explanation of the making-off the cacao fruit powder, and how to use the powder !

📷:

22/11/2024

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOlGBwj_MfY&t=2s&pp=2AECkAIB

We cordially invite you to join us for the WWF + FCCI Conversation Series: EUDR. Hear from Katrien Delaet, Chief Cacaopreneur of Silva Cacao, as she discusse...

25/10/2024

EUDR – what does it mean for chocolatemakers?

Companies lacking strong policies on sustainable sourcing & deforestation will face significant challenges. For Silva Cacao, with “F for Forest” ingrained in our core values, means stepping up & documenting our efforts.

As a sourcer & importer we must ensure that all cacao is traceable to a specific plot of land, with geolocation & legality data, risk-assessment, mitigation plan, submit a Due Diligence Statement (DDS) in the EU info system (TRACES)

🔜This result in a DDS ref n°, mandatory for cacao to be released for circulation within or export from the EU market.
Requirements for chocolatemakers:
🔹 Large makers must submit a new DDS based on the previous one
🔹 SMEs don’t need to submit a due diligence declaration & can rely on the existing DDS-number
⁉️EC’s proposal for a 1y phase-in is still pending approval by the parliament & will be voted on 14 nov 24.

🕙 Chocolatemakers processing cacao after 30 dec 24 (‘25) must demonstrate that the cacao was cleared before this date (simply by order request, transport document, or invoice date)
🕐 For chocolate made after 30 dec ‘24 (‘25) with cacao cleared after 30 Dec 24 or 25, you must provide the respective DDS N° 

🏷️ We make compliance easy & hassle-free by streamlining the process. As from the EUDR enforcement date, our invoice will include the DDS ref n°, ensuring automatic & direct info transfer to our small & medium sized chocolatemakers. Large customers will receive a security token to access the EU platform.

TAKEAWAYS
🍫 What about specialty cacao? While traceability is assured for all beans, the resources needed for burden of data collection, risk assessment & validation are substantial relative to volumes sourced.
🏷️ Traceability alone is not enough. True transparency requires understanding not just where the cacao comes from, but also how & by whom it was produced.
✨ The specialty cacao sector, with deeper level of transparency is a unique selling point, setting it apart in a crowded market.

📣 ❤👨🏽‍🌾🍫🌳 We can built a future cacao that thrives in harmony with the environment and where traceability & transparency are the norm!

18/10/2024

🇪🇺 🌎🌍🌏 EUDR field reality!

🌳 The Deforestation Regulation is the most stringent environmental low in the EU to halt deforestation, & request to
1. Map the entire supply chain
2. Geolocate all cacao-plots (polygons > 4 ha, points < 4 ha)
3. Conduct risk assessment, with evidence that no deforestation occurred after 30 dec 2020
4. Establish chain of custody
5. Provide due diligence statement via EU digital platform

⁉️ While the requirements are quite straight forward, the field reality is different. Our field take-aways
👨🏽‍🌾 Any EUDR effort must consider socio-economic reality faced by smallholder producers, who risk losing market access if they can’t meet the requirements
👩‍💻 While technology is crucial for compliance, ground truthing, manual intervention & human judgement are needed to correct inaccuracies, ensuring reliable results
💭 A realistic & context-sensitive approach is a must, balancing regulatory demands with practical needs & possible limitations for producers
 ⚖️ It could unintentionally benefit larger producers, hindering inclusiveness and diversity
 🔎 EUDR still has several grey areas, being clarified
 🕊Many countries face ongoing political & economical instability, presenting significant challenges
A one-size-fit all approach simply doesn’t exist

SILVA APPROACH
🏷️ Traceability was already ensured, and we view EUDR as an opportunity to further improve transparency in our cacao-chains
💪 We recognise the pressures EUDR can place on producers, so our approach is flexible, collaborative & progressive.

📃 Our guideline document for our partners, outlines the technical details of data requirements , and our approach is customized with trainings and tiered engagement levels, from basic data collection to full risk assessments. In dialogue with our partners we adapt to each supplier’s needs.

🌳🌺🐆 We continue to promote sustainable agroforestry practices where cacao grows in harmony with nature, beyond forest cover

✨In short: Our purpose is to navigate the new regulation collaboratively, teaming up to ensure compliance while offering tailored support, avoiding redundant efforts & unnecessary verification costs.

📧 us!

13/10/2024

Focus on Forest & EUDR

🌳 October Forest Month: ideal to dive into EU Deforestation Regulation. Forest is part for Silva’s core values so we we’re using this opportunity to reaffirm our commitments.

⁉️ EUDR compliance remains a controversial & complex topic. After weeks of speculation, the EC officially proposed a 12 month extension period recently. This phase-in period aims to ensure proper implementation & was proposed because many voiced concerns about meeting the initial deadlines. The EC issued also new guidance documents, clarifying scope & risks & updated FAQs.

⏰ Shaking up the cacao industry. EUDR is one of the most stringent environmental laws in the EU, aiming to ensure that 7 key consumer goods & their deritvates (soy, cattle, oil palm, wood, coffee, cacao & natural rubber) placed on the EU market do not cause deforestation after 30/12/2020. For our beloved cacao sector, this means that all cacao (products) entering or leaving EU must be:
🔹Deforestation-Free: Ensuring that cacao products purchased, used, consumed by Europeans do not contribute to deforestation
🔹Compliant with Local Legislation: Cacao must adhere to relevant national legislation including laws on environment, land use, forest governance, labour, tax & human rights.
🔹Due Diligence: Each shipment must have a due diligence statement, confirming minimal risk of non-compliance

➡️ This demands a dramatic sector-shift towards full traceability: while the cacao barometer 2022 highlighted that 37% of cacao could be traced to farm level, & 57% to coop level, EUDR requests 100% to farm level with detailed geolocation data & legal compliance.

📍The workload for mapping forest & cacao areas is a joint effort of producers & importers. Cacao producers with < 4ha of cacao can provide a GPS pin marking the centre of their plot, areas with > 4ha cacao have to do polygon mapping, outlining the boundaries of each plot.

⚡️Importers, distributors & processors bringing cacao & their derivates to the EU market need to demonstrate full cacao traceability, representing a major step in traceability, with strict zero-tolerance approach.

🔉Stay tuned: impact of cacao producers & chocolatemakers!

04/10/2024

IN GOOD COMPANY – OUR AMAZING LOCAL PARTNERS (& THEIR CACAO) part 2

🇲🇬 UCLS – Union de Coopérative Lazan’ny
Founded in 2009, UCLS is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. UCLS is an umbrella organisation - or 2nd level cooperative - for 23 primary coop’s. Their 410 members are shareholders in both their primary cooperative and UCLS.

💕Why do we love UCLS so much?UCLS’ structure ensures that they maximise the benefits from added value in the supply chain & pre-financing. UCLS has developed a thorough cacao program that emphasises organic farming, careful selection of planting materials, optimised post-harvest practices and access to markets.

💎Silva’s UCLS cacao collection features a trio of organic cacao beans from cooperatives in the low, mid & high Sambirano regions:
🔹Tsafarandray offers a beautifully balanced flavour profile with medium acidity & fruity notes of berries & cherries. It features delicate hints of jasmine & vanilla, with a fresh citrus bloom in the aftertaste. Like all Madagascan cacao, Tsarafandray boasts exceptional genetics.
🔹T’mar presents an a-typical round and creamy profile with notes of mocca, toffee and a refreshing hint of pomelo and lemongrass.
🔹Mivoatra grows cacao in a unique microclimate the lower Sambirano Valley, with a distinct harvesting period. Renowned for its small micro-lots and exceptional taste. A simple yet carefully controlled post-harvest process imparts magical flaours with a rich aroma of fruits & nuts, a smooth, well-rounded flavour profile that highlights the red fruit acidity, especially raspberry & strawberry yogurt, alongside notes of raisins, sweet nuts & praliné. Hints of spices, bergamot, a touch of kirr add layers of complexity.

❓What is your favourite taste of Madagascar?

01/10/2024

IN GOOD COMPANY – OUR AMAZING LOCAL PARTNERS (& THEIR CACAO)

🇲🇬 Madagascar, we collaborate with 2 local hero-partners: p. 1

MAVA is a group of agricultural companies cultivating crops like ylang ylang, coffee, patchouli, vanilla…& cacao. The MAVA cacao estate is entirely owned by Malagasy families, comprises 8 cacao plantations that stretch from north to south along the Sambirano Valley.

💕Why do we love MAVA so much?
At MAVA farms, workers make the most of non-cacao areas by growing rice, vegetables & raising cattle. They also enjoy the benefits of MAVA’s social security system, with women given priority for cacao harvesting & selection roles. Unlike other producers that blend beans for a uniform flavour, MAVA keeps cacao from each farm separate, enabling distinct genetic blends & specialised post-harvest processes. The meticulous approach results in unique & exceptional quality & flavours, earning MAVA its reputation as a ‘cocoa of excellence awarded’ cacao producer & one of our highly valued local partners.

💎 MAVA cacao collection features 4 different organic cacao beans:
🔹 Ambohimena offers a well-rounded aromatic profile with alternating flavours of dried fruits, spices, nuts & sweetness, highlighted by red fruits & lingering minty finish. Although it has fewer chocolaty notes compared to other Madagascan cacaos, its exceptional quality is rooted in an outstanding genetic heritage.
🔹Antsamala features a classic, smooth chocolaty profile with a pleasant citric touch, complemented by distinctive spicy, woody & nutty flavours along with subtle floral notes. Its exceptional quality is attributed to varieties flourished in the island’s climate & soil.
🔹 Amabalahonko offers creamy hints of cashew & a touch of cedar wood. While it has fewer chocolatey notes than other Madagascan cacaos it is complemented by delicate lemon notes & fruity flavours.
🔹Ottange boasts a complex flavour profile with a gentle acidity & subtle chocolaty notes. Elegant and somewhat spicy bouquet of red fruits, honey, roasted nuts, coffee, and cacao, complemented by hints of blonde to***co & spices.
A Cocoa of Excellence Award winner!

Intrigued by these unique beans? 📧

30/08/2024

🇲🇬💕MAD ABOUD MADAGSCAR – FIELD REALITY INSIGHTS

Madagascar holds a unique position in the world of cacao. It ranks only 19th in global production but is celebrated for its exceptional quality. Though if you worked with Madagascan beans, you might have noticed the rarity in the market.
We share our curated insights from Aug 2024 field trip on the reasons behind the disruption:

☀💧🌊 ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS - significant shift in weather patterns, fluctuations in rainfall & temp, long drought periods combined with tropical storm & cyclones in Jan-Feb 24 turned cacao production upside down: flooding’s, saltwater intrusion in coastal areas, poor flowering & pod development. Disease outbreaks are exacerbating the issues, causing some farms to miss out on a significant portio of the season. Adverse rain patterns also complicate the drying process, negatively impacting quality.

🕵🔎💰 VOLUMES DISAPPEARING OUT OF THE HANDS OF TRADITIONAL BUYERS - aggressive buying by intermediary buyers who traditionally do not purchase Madagascar beans is causing some volumes to disappear into bulk lots, making them unavailable for quality products. Continued high “street-market” prices make some farmers opt for quick fermentation & drying, not walking the extra mile for quality. Also theft cases increase exponentially.

👨🏼‍🌾🦟🌳 FRAGILE FARMS - traditionally cacao farming is “low-input” in Madagascar, meaning no or limited fertilizers or crop protection products. This makes farms highly depend on what nature provides. In adverse years with long drought & less nutrition, production risks to drop directly. Deforestation for rice, cattle, etc. puts further stress on water availability, creating vulnerable ecosystems.

🏴‍☠ 🚢🌏 MESSY LOGISTICS - the red sea remains an unsafe zone, requiring vessels to route around Cape of Good Hope to reach Europe, resulting in transit times of up to 3 months.

16/08/2024

💕🇲🇬MAD ABOUD MADAGASCAR

EXPLORING THE ISLAND’S DISTINCTIVE TERROIR AND ITS UNIQUE, RARE, EXQUISITE CACAO IN LIMITED SUPPLY

📍Madagascar 🇲🇬
🔹26 M inhabitants from 18 etnic groups
▫️An exceptional biodiversity hotspot, and 95% of Malagasy reptiles, 89% of its plant life, and 92% of its mammals exist nowhere else on Earth
🔹A diversity of ecosystems form rainforest, to mangrove, desserts and coral reefs
▫️Endemic lemurs, chameleons, bats, geckos and baobabs are just a few of the famous indicators species
🔹It is famous for vanilla and cacao, with unique flavour potential

🏝️ CACAO ON AN ISOLATED ISLAND
There are several theories on how cacao was introduced in Madagascar. The most plausible is that it was introduced in the early 1800s via La Reunion from Asia, possibly through Ceylon. While criollo was part of the first introductions, today you find a genetic mix, that evolved naturally over time. What’s special is that after the late 1800s no new cacao varieties have been introduced.
👉🏻💎 This makes the Madagascan cacao genetics unique.

🇲🇬☀️🌳With its warm and humid climate, Sambirano Valley, between the sea and the Tsaratanana mountains in Nort-West Madagascar offers perfect conditions for cacao growing and is the epicenter of cacao production. While In the 1800s cacao was grown in plantation, though nowadays the average farm is 0,8 ha and smallholder farmers dominate production.

📈📉QUALITY & QUANTITY
Madagascar and Comor islands have a unique cacao-position with rising demand.
While production is on the rise since 2010, volumes never reached more then 15,000 MT, or < 1% of global volumes. Year 2023 was marked with a significant volume drop due to tropical storms and drought. And the same is expected for 2024. Madagascar cacao is celebrated for its outstanding qualities, thanks to its genetic blend and controlled post-harvest. It is recognized by ICCO as 100% fine flavour origin.

💡NEW INSIGHTS?
In next post your will read about Silva’s recent field visit sharing weather impacts, harvest forecasts and qualities for the upcoming season!

28/07/2024

💗 GRATEFUL FOR OUR PARTNERS!

✨📈📉 The cacao crisis is celebrating its 6 months. It is in time of crisis that the value of trusted partners becomes clearer then ever. A loyal and trustable supply is an essential part of business. Standing out is not only through the consistency of quality of products, but also through resilience and dedication to continue to supply in difficult times.

❗️👉🏻 This role goes beyond simply supplying cacao. It means, based on mutual trust and shared commitment to continue to go for quality and sustainability, even in the most challenging times. And in case of interruption, bringing along some creativity and flexibility together allowing continuity. This enables chocolate makers to provide final customers with the chocolate products they love!

✨ 🫶🏻 Today we want to give a shout out and THANK YOU to our amazing fabulous cacao farmers, post-harvest heroes, fermentation experts and chocolate makers that continue to walk the extra mile. This is PARTNERSHIP !

🙏🏻Thank you, Dank u, Obrigado, Merci, Gracias, Gracie Mile, Asante!

📷 2: Partners & friends: Erick Ac and Arturo Santos

16/06/2024

🌳 How to integrate “value for nature” in your cacao-purchase decision?

⁉️ The idea of growing cacao under forest seems simple but the reality is quite challenging. Just like crafting fine chocolate requires artistry, establishing a robust agroforestry system demands careful planning. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, depends on specific circumstances and requires a deep understanding of the initial conditions, defining the system’s purpose, and thoughtful management.

📈 The true impact of these systems only becomes apparent after a decade or two, with initial results showing after a few years. Achieving impact requires sustained commitment to a consistent direction over the years.

💡 Understanding the contribution of your cacao to nature may seem abstract, but here are some practical takeaways:

➡️❓Ask questions: Engage with your cacao sourcer to truly understand how your cacao is grown. seek to comprehend the field reality, choices made, and opportunities for improvement.

➡️Consider the following factors:
🔸Understand farmers’ reality & history of the area
🔹Type of cacao-forest system
🔸Assess forest cover & diversity within the system.
🔹proximity to natural reserves.
🔸use of agrochemicals
🔹Look at the bigger picture: understand that it’s not just about the trees above the cacao; take into account the broader ecosystem. A cacao plot with less shade but conserved forest nearby, can have a great overall value for nature thanks to connectivity and diversity.

➡️Recognise varying cultivation methods: Some cacaos are grown in harmony with nature under native forest cover. For example, in Brazil cacao thriving under the multi-layered Mata Atlantica Forest is called “Cabruca”.

➡️Consider field reality: For smallholder farmers, the field reality is unique. They must navigate a small plot of land, balancing cacao cultivation, shade-tree management, and securing enough income.

🌳❓Can you still see the forest through the trees?
🔉Let us know how you want to take into account Forest and Nature into your purchase decision, and we can team-up to make the F of forest stand out!

07/06/2024

🌿Leafing through agroforestry practices 💕

🌳 At Silva we take pride in our unique focus on forest, farmers, flavours & future, all while having fun.

✨ A HIGHLIGHT ON THE F OF FOREST

🌱It all starts with our name Silva chosen for a good reason. Silva means forest in Latin, highlighting the origin of Theobroma cacao, native to Amazon rainforests!
🌳☀️Cacao thrives under forest canopies, coexisting harmoniously with diverse plants & surrounding biodiversity. Cacao does best when sheltered from harsh sunlight beneath taller trees.
🍃 This intimate bond between cacao & forests underscores a core concept: rather than clear-cutting vast stretches of land, cacao can be integrated with a diverse mix of trees. This strategy known as agroforestry presents an ecologically robust alternative, fostering sustainable cacao production while safeguarding our precious forest ecosystems.

👩🏽‍🌾 🌳AGROFORESTRY
🔹A land-use system that integrates trees & shrubs with agricultural crops or animals on the same land
🔹A dynamic & ecologic approach for natural resources, maximising benefits from both agriculture & forestry
🔹Agroforestry practices differ greatly across landscapes & regions, reflecting local environmental, cultural & socio-economic conditions

⛱️🌳 SHADY BUSINESS

⁉️While over 70% of the world’s cacao grow with ‘some’ level of shade, the value for nature can be 50 shades of…
🔎 An effective method for assessing the ecological value of shade is by assessing % shade, N° of shade layers & species diversity in these layers.
⚖️ It is a balancing act to get the shade right!

➕Advantages of agroforestry
◽️Improved soil health & fertility
◽️Biodiversity & ecosystem services
◽️Climate change adaptation & mitigation
◽️Pest & disease control
◽️Enhanced water availability
◽️Potential for better quality & flavour
◽️Natural resource management

➖But overly dense canopy can hinder due to
◽️Decreasing yield
◽️Nutrient deficiencies & water stress
◽️Pests & diseases

💎 🌳Growing cacao under forest seems simple but just like crafting chocolate establishing & robust cacao-agroforestry is art.

🔈 Stay tuned on how to integrate the F for forest in your cacao purchase decisions