They call Cacao the Peace plant in Colombia, because it has the potential in some locations to transpose Coca – the plant used to make cocaine – as a source of income for farmers.
Colombian is not a big player in the world cocoa market, but they are proud to point to a number of silver awards chocolatiers have won with cocoa from Colombia.
Compared to those of their cousins in Ecuador, the cocoa exports from Colombia are tiny but some companies want to change all that. An article on Mongabay highlights the work by Agricompas which is creating the data analytics for use by farmers, and it’s free!
With some training, farmers can learn to make the best use out of limited resources. For example, when the best time to use their limited quantity of fertiliser.
Agricompas monitises the data after aggregating it and selling the anonymous data to third parties who can use it to inform trading positions for example. This makes the business model a win-win for both the farmer, who gets access to data they would otherwise not be able to afford, and to third parties who can use the data in numerous ways, including track and trace.
With the recent predictions from CAA see our other article here that the Americas’ increased production is a threat to Ghana, this work has the potential to have a massive impact on the production output of Colombia’s farmers.
We love infographics, so we put one together to highlight the key points.
