Cocoa Through the Lens: A Photographer’s Visit to the Dominican Republic

San Francisco de Macorís

My first visit was to San Francisco de Macorís, a small town located about an hour and a half south of the country’s northern coastline, and home to Roig Agro-Cacao S. A., a World Cocoa Foundation member, one of the country’s leading exporters of cocoa beans, and one of the largest organic cocoa exporters in the world. People I spoke to in the capital, Santo Domingo, often referred to this area as the ‘heartland’ of Dominican cocoa. As we approached San Francisco, the rolling plains gave way to stands of cacao, and the reason for this became apparent. Soon, dense groves of cacao trees lined both sides of the road, like one vast forest stretching on for kilometers. Here and there, I could see cocoa pods hanging from trunks and branches. In fact, from the car, the trees seemed incredibly productive, some literally covered in pods.

Alberto González Hernández, the Manager of Quality at Roig greeted me upon arrival and explained that the impressive productivity I had seen from the road was the result of breeding programs and dissemination of high-yield varieties by companies like Roig in the area. He had arranged a visit to a couple of nearby farms his company works with, where harvesting was taking place. Compared to the smallholder sites I usually photograph, the farms we visited seemed vast and the proliferation of pods was incredible. In fact, I was amazed that the owners could find the teams doing the harvesting, which was deep inside the plantations. Next, we visited the fermentation center and drying patios. At this point the air around us was infused with the wonderful rich scent of the beans. With all this cocoa everywhere, I was thrilled when Alberto suggested I visit the company’s on-site laboratory to try a cocoa liqueur Roig has under development and a ‘test’ bar of chocolate. It was sheer chocolate bliss.

La Valle

The next area I visited was the remote community of La Valle, in the far eastern province of Samana. We left early in the morning for the visit, driving through a verdant landscape of lush mountains where small farms were dotted across the hillsides growing a variety of traditional Dominican crops such as tubers, citrus trees, and coconut. I met Yohanny Almonte, the Executive Director of the Asociación de Productores De Cacao Orgánico De Castillo (APCOC), in the old port town of Samana, located on the southern coast of the Samana Peninsula. From there, we made our way even farther east along more mountain roads to a narrow unpaved turn off where we had to precariously ford a couple of shallow rivers to reach the community of La Valle. Along the way, Yohanny explained to me how her and a group of other cocoa producers had formed APCOC in 2012 to join forces in obtaining organic certification for their product, and in order to improve access to new markets by aggregating their beans. The association now has 154 members, 104 of them already certified organic.

When we arrived in La Valle, we were warmly greeted by a family that had worked with APCOC for a number of years. In one home, we met Margo Severino, whose family act as local aggregators for the community. Freshly harvested cocoa beans were fermenting in covered plastic barrels in the front yard of their cozy but rustic house. The family also produces coconuts, from which it manufactures coconut oil, marketing the husks for firewood as well to make ends meet. Margo immediately went to work making traditional Dominican hot chocolate, hand-grating the cinnamon-infused blocks into powder to boil and then sweeten, producing a delicious rich warm beverage that she served with fresh homemade bread for dipping. Next, we visited a series of small farms, mostly under a quarter of an acre. Most of the farmers in La Valle have only a few trees, planted over the hillsides above La Valle, but are gradually expanding their groves as they gain confidence in the market, or as they put it, ‘timidly’ expanding their cocoa farms as they learn more with the help of organizations like APCOC.

Lucy O’Bryan is Communications Director at Absolute Options (AO) as well as owner and operator of Lucy O’Bryan Photography. Her work employs tools such as photography and photo blogs, public speaking, and new social media, to enhance promotion and public outreach efforts of organizations around the world. In this role, she has photographed cocoa producers and processors in dozens of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Oceania to enhance linkages between consumers and farmers and promote richer appreciation of the culture and terroir associated with cocoa and chocolate. Visit https://www.whereintheworldislucy.com/cacao for more information.