Valrhona and the Cocoa Forest Initiative

Innovating together to create the sustainable cocoa of the future

Cacao Forest is a pioneering initiative bringing together farmers, businesses, researchers, consumers and NGOs. With our producers, we are creating new agroforestry methods for cocoa farming that improve rural communities’ resilience, diversify producers’ incomes, protect the environment and increase farm productivity.

We are utilizing our shared expertise to find just the right balance of cocoa trees and other plant species that will provide optimal results for producers and the environment.

During phase one, between 2017 and 2019, the project focused on prototyping growing models with Dominican producers: Four growing prototypes were rolled out on 36 plots with 23 growers (utilizing 4,819 cocoa trees and over 10,000 other plants). The other major focus areas were communications and new market opportunities for cocoa based agroforestry systems’ produce.

By 2022

The objective for phase 2 of the project (2020-2022) is to carry out a full-scale test in the Dominican Republic, which will consist of:

Further to this, a feasibility study is now underway to duplicate the Cacao Forest scheme in other countries and West Africa in particular.

Find out more on www.cacaoforest.org