CasaQoya: Speciality Cacao and the Fertile Amazon Valley of Chazuta
It was a series of random but timely events that led our path to the Chazuta Valley. We had always wanted to relocate out of the city and into the enchanted regions of our diverse country and along came the opportunity for us to relocate to the San Martin province in the upper Amazon, a beautiful area we already knew and held an affinity towards. With our newly born son we moved into Chazuta, built our house and laid the foundations to oversee a productive cacao business.
The Chazuta District is located in a narrow valley that the Huallaga River opens between peaks of over a thousand metres of both Cerro Escalera and Cordillera Azul mountain ranges in the San Martín Department of the Peruvian Amazon. Chazuta, the main settlement here is located at 260m above sea level is where we chose to build Casa Qoya, our home and its connecting facilities for post harvest production. Overland access to the valley is via a bumpy road which can be cut off for short periods of time during the wet season and river transport is restricted to small boats because of the dangerous rapids. The climate here is tropical, being more humid than in most parts of San Martín since the valley is close to the lowland Amazon.
We had secured a large area of land that had been stripped for cattle grazing and we had before us a fantastic opportunity to reforest a significant area of upper amazonian land with new cacao trees of the variety we require and to oversee the whole process. We had support from another large cacao producer in informing us of the essentials and we became fixated on the finer details of new growth farming practices and agroforestry systems, created by mixing other crops such as majambo, banana palms and several hundred native trees alongside our woody perennial cacao. Our idea was to reintroduce the wild tree varieties to lessen the distinct barrier between the edges of our farm and the wild jungle, to observe and learn from the local habitat and encourage environmental conservation in harmony with a successful cacao harvest.
The skills that we have learnt, we’ve passed on to local farmers who we are reliant on in the initial seasons of our farming business. While we are still waiting for the bumper crop of mature trees, our shorter trees have trunks blooming with flowers and fruit and we can clearly see why this area is optimal for cacao production. With a large covered and raised outdoor drying area, natural fermentation crates, a strange warehouse and a fully equipped laboratory, we’ve been able to introduce a higher quality of product by analysing our beans at every step in the process as well as experimenting at each stage. This expertise we can directly pass on to the local farmers as we are extremely transparent about our more scrupulous levels of testing and although the farmers have been producing cacao for generations in this region they have taken well to our modern advice and strictness in our selection process. After we’ve explained flavour profiles and presented them with a good liquor, an opposing bad one and their own they can understand the importance in the attention to detail which gives them a new found motivation in being part of a progressive industry.
It was through these modern techniques and support of the local farmers that Nina was born. Our brand was established to honour the cacao product from its ethnographic ancestry into the broad avant garde culture of enjoying fine, dark chocolate. Nina is a quechan word for fire and signifies transformation through nature, albeit with a dark undertone. We don’t want to ignore the challenges that have swept through these valleys and we wanted to light a beacon that fused ourselves with the local residents in acknowledgement of unity and community effort in remembering and preserving traditional wisdoms and cultural identities.
There is a strong sense of community in Chazuta, which has strongly resisted threats to destabilise traditional culture, as has happened in other towns in the region over the last several decades and through a tough 2 year civil war and militarization of the valley. It’s been through local organisation, the formation of farmer patrols and several human rights committees such as the ‘Women Defenders of Life’ that the violence and scandals were mitigated and the locals were warned off the financial support offered by outside gang leaders. That being said however, there was a long period where the effects of the drug trafficking deeply affected the cultural values of the village. At the same time, problems with malnutrition increased as during the coca fever many families stopped cultivating food crops. Today, coca cultivation is said to be nearly extinct.
The Cultural Patronage of Chazuta was formed in 2008 with the intention of recovering the cultural expressions of the village and in teaming up with the District Educational Project to bring the cultural heritage into the local school curriculum. A large cultural effort has come from the Wasichay Cultural Centre who has supported many of the community events and coordinated the intervention of NGOs in gaining funding for cultural projects. One of these projects very worthy of mention was the creation of the Ceramics Association and ceramics workshop and kiln at the cultural centre where indigenous iconography has been brought back to life with such considerable interpretational importance that it’s possible to understand many of the traditional attitudes and traditions from a short visit to the centre. We have resounded the importance of these local traditions and lores with our business practices and continue to bring new ideas into the village, and where sometimes we overestimate the intentions of the town representatives, we also have a sense of progress, innovation and empowerment creeping into the younger generations, which is where our main focus has been.
The cacao business is booming in Peru and we’re incredibly excited to be here surfing the wave of optimism, but we’re also aware of the hard work that needs to be done to allow the local farmers to feel security within their trade and our successes are closely intertwined in theirs. Unfortunately the traditional agriculture practices of the valley based on diversity and imitation of the forest structure seems to be forgotten after the booms and monoculture experienced in the past, this is a time where retraining of agroforestry techniques can bring advantage to our farmers in the form of more efficient land use, improved soil protection and ultimately higher yields and income for them.
In terms of our chocolate distribution, we still have a lot to learn, and where there are always uncertainties around international logistics we feel very confident around the worth of our product. Cacao has been a remarkable teacher to us, where the curriculum is being revealed a little at a time, in return for respect and patience, the secrets are understood of this mysterious superfood that transcends conventional culinary classification that we believe will continue to receive good press alongside a global shift of conscientious dietary changes. Our dedication to our cacao craftsmanship can be recognised by those who share our attention to detail and support ethical practices and values, there’s a great movement and we feel that we’re shuffling along, locked arms with a rather large global family. Our future goal here is to grow enough to influence the community and expand our efforts to community based projects, putting Chazuta on the map. Currently we employ local farm groundskeepers, allow school access to our 2nd post harvesting facility in the local village of Llucayanacu and we’ve worked alongside local women’s groups in the fabrication of textiles and ceramics, encouraging supporting skill sharing and giving a more attractive interaction with the visiting tourists.
With all of these considerations in mind, we continue to evolve as a family and as a business and since our outset we’ve been super lucky in attracting the help of others and received great encouragement. We are open to suggestions and negotiations and welcome contact from international organisations with similar values to support us into the future.
About this author:
Before my son Liam was born, my husband, Oliver and I travelled extensively throughout Peru searching for a place that ignited a desire to start new opportunities. We were charmed by the quaint village of Chazuta, located in the Upper Amazon; the traditional way of life and farming practices and the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains. We decided from that point on to embark upon a journey together discovering the art of tree to bar chocolatiering and Chazuta gave us the ingredients to build our family home and cacao farm. Compelled to trade in city-life for a more fulfilling and harmonious life connected with nature where we could pursue our curiosity with cacao, Nina chocolates was born. Leading with the heart, practicing ethical farming and supporting the local community were intuitive roots to plant that continue to flourish within our family and beautiful district of San Martin.
Please Visit:
