Group MotMot
Colorful cacao pods gathered in a woven basket
Producer organizations

The people and places behind the cacao.

Meet twelve Ecuadorian producer organizations through their own histories, regional identities, slogans, and recorded cacao profiles.

Origin network

Select an origin.
Read its cacao.

Explore the producer organizations behind MotMot’s origin network. Select a marker to connect each community’s territory, landscape-linked flavour associations, story, and recorded sensory profile.

Community directory

Twelve organizations. Twelve distinct histories.

These English profiles, slogans, and provinces come from Conservación & Desarrollo's organoleptic community record.

01

Pichincha Province

UNOCYPP

“Quito Cocoa”

We are the Union of Nor Western Communities of Pichincha (UNOCYPP). The organization is based in Puerto Rico, a town located two and a half hours from Quito, and represent more than 500 producers of fine Aroma cocoa. We support the development of our community by strengthen organizational skills within our partners integrating economic, social and environmental issues, and the awareness of a proper use of natural resources. We believe on transferring knowledge and implementing clean technologies based on the principle of SUMAK KAWSAY. We are founded on true democratic principles.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Fruity
  • Floral
  • Cocoa
  • Citrus
02

Los Ríos Province

Asociación APOV

“Cradle of fine flavored cocoa”

We are an association of cocoa producers located in one of the regions with the greatest traditions and history with this product. Situated in the heart of the origin of fine flavored cocoa also know as cocoa “Arriba”, because in olden times it was transported by river from the higher lands. The cocoa produced in haciendas was the first export product of Ecuador in the XIX century. In this region there are still trees that are more than 100 years old and keep producing. When Land Reform came to the province of Los Ríos, in 1966, some haciendas were broke and were bought by their employees, who had been working there for generations. Many farmers, during the boom of bananas in the 1980s, cut down their cocoa trees, but some of us in Las Naves resisted this change because we love this crop. We are determined to not lose this ancestral inheritance of growing delicious fine flavored varieties.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Cocoa
  • Floral
  • Woody
  • Fruity
  • Green plants
  • Dried fruit
  • Nutty
03

Esmeraldas Province

Asociación APROCA

“Cocoa with the aroma of passion”

We are an association sandwiched between the beach and mountains, where there is a confluence of great cultural diversity of Afroamericans, Manabitas, Lojanos and Chachis. What we have in common is the green geography of Esmeraldas Province. We are passionate about the cocoa crop and this is why we are organized. Our members know our transparent processes and our commitment to the environment. Our clients trust in the quality of our product. In the future we would like to diversify our offer and make chocolate.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Plantain
  • Milk
  • Caramelized
  • Dried fruit
  • Cocoa
  • Woody
  • Floral
  • Fruity
04

Los Ríos Province

Asociación Buena Suerte

“Tradition, aroma and heart”

We are farmers from distinct parts of Ecuador, characterized by the work, perseverance and consistency that made our association grow from 6 members in 1995, the year we began, to the 112 members who are currently in our association. Our farms are located around the neighborhood of Buena Suerte in the county of El Empalme, province of Guayas. Many of us come here, attracted by the land, because of the sale of wood and because it is a meeting place between the three provinces, Guayas, Manabí and Los Ríos. El Empalme means union and that is what characterizes our members. We hope that, plus the name of our association, Good Luck, keeps giving us good omens for a prosperous future.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Cocoa
  • Plantain
  • Woody
  • Floral
  • Citrus
  • Dried fruit
  • Red fruits
  • Milk
05

Bolívar Province

Corporación CORAGRICACE

“The reality of flavor is here”

This association is located in the picturesque enclave of Echeandía, at the foot of the Andes mountains. Many of us came from the high and cold lands of Guaranda at the end of the 1960s. We learned from our neighbors the art of growing cocoa and other products such as coffee, oranges and bananas. Now we produce a distinctive flavored cocoa that comes from the unique combination of the cloud forest that surrounds us and the native nacional and criollo varieties that we grow.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Spicy
  • Fruity
  • Caramelized
  • Plantain
  • Milk
  • Cinnamon
06

Manabí Province

Fortaleza del Valle

“Naturally yours”

We are montubio producers, happy, hospitable and untiring workers. We produce cocoa in a Manabí valley, which despite the limitations in water, is very fertile. We were born as an organization in 2006, with the union of two Associations, La Fortaleza and Valle de Carrizal. The changes we have had since then are visible: we are organized and technified and represent very well our name “Strength of the Valley”. In this group of humans there is vision. We have established organizations processes, we know the demands of the market and our brand is being recognized globally.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Caramelized
  • Nutty
  • Floral
  • Fruity
  • Cocoa
07

Orellana Province

Asociación San Carlos

“The taste of cocoa for the world”

We were born as an association to provide a social service to the farmers of Orellana Province and to improve the price and quality of their cocoa. Now our services extend to Sucumbíos Province and we provide technical assistance to more than 1,200 farmers. We work with an approach of Socio-environmental Field Schools and our manner of working has been so successful that we continue to grow. We work with farmers located in buffer zones of Yasuní National Park.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Fruity
  • Nutty
  • Woody
  • Caramelized
  • Milk
08

Sucumbíos Province

Asociación Miss Ecuador

“A new hope”

We are a young organization that originally had the name “Fight for Progress”. But everyone knows us as “Miss Ecuador”. We think it is because this name is more attractive and also because the area where we live is called this. We are producers from many parts of Ecuador, who came to the Amazon with the promise of land to cultivate. Initially we planted coffee, but with the fall in prices a decade ago, we decided to plant cocoa. In our farms you can see that we take care of nature and plant cocoa Nacional.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Floral
  • Citrus
  • Cocoa
  • Red fruits
  • Green plants
09

Esmeraldas Province

Unión Eloy Alfaro

“The peace cocoa”

Our organization is in the most Northern zone of Esmeraldas Province, close to the frontier with Colombia and that is known as a conflict zone at an international level. Nevertheless, our cocoa is known as “peace cocoa”, because it creates income for the partners with whom we work, we are organized and this lets us live in peace. It is a challenge to reach all the farmers, sometimes there are not roads to the farms, even so we get there and gather large volumes. Among our members are Chachis and Afro-Ecuadorians and colonists from various regions of Ecuador, but we all have a common objective to produce good quality cocoa.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Licorice
  • Milk
  • Nutty
  • Dried fruit
  • Spicy
  • Floral
  • Fruity
  • Wine
10

El Oro, Azuay and Guayas Provinces

Federación FEDECADE

“The tradition of cocoa”

We are one of the oldest cocoa associations in Ecuador. We are made up of many farmers who immigrated to the Coast with the promise of planting banana and after a large drop in the prices of banana, we became interested in cocoa. We are a federation committed to unifying the cocoa producers of all of Ecuador, so that we have a voice and participate in the national policies concerning production, distribution, quality and a more just commercialization of this product.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Cinnamon
  • Dried fruit
  • Spicy
  • Cocoa
  • Nutty
  • Floral
11

Bolívar Province

Asociación UCOCS

“Up with the environment”

We are a small and relatively young organization formed by farmers that believe in the value of varieties of nacional cocoa, even when many of us feel forced to eradicate our gardens of arriba varieties to plant hybrids. In UCOCS we are committed to finding markets that pay a just price for a well fermented and high quality cocoa, in a way that our partners can keep tending their integrated organic farms.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Cinnamon
  • Floral
  • Caramelized
  • Woody
  • Fruity
  • Nutty
12

Esmeraldas Province

Corporación COCPE

“United producing and selling with quality”

We are a farmers’ association. Men and women organized with the aim of selling our cocoa for a good price and improving the income of our families. We are located in Quinindé, a green city of Ecuador, which gets its name for the exuberance of its nature and vegetation. They say that this is the century of Women and that is proven with the list of members of our association, there is gender equity. We are growing and currently we are comprised of 27 basic organizations.

Landscape flavour influences

  • Red fruits
  • Citrus
  • Green plants
  • Cocoa
  • Plantain
  • Floral