About

BIO MIGUEL ORELLANA

 

I was born, grew up and live in the wonderful Cacao World. My great grandfather was Coffee and Cacao farmer, my grandfather acquired knowledge for trading it in the city, and my father and uncle kept this tradition alive, taking it to the next level: exporting Cacao to several countries since 1980. My first job at the age of 18 was to teach farmers to understand quality standards, so they have better prices and our family business can offer better quality. I have dedicated the last 10 years to research, praxis and study  Cacao: traveling to very remote areas in Ecuador, where cacao grows. Sharing knowledge  with the farmers, living with them under one roof: that’s how I could made a connection and it allowed me to have a better comprehension of farmer’s needs. As well as while working for my family I understood the situation within big corporations.

The farmers for example live in areas without access roads. The ones they have  are only passable in summertime. During rainy season some towns are almost isolated and it’s very difficult going or out in an emergency. They also don’t have electricity or tap water. Small producers live without basic education or technical influences and so it makes it harder for them to understand the market needs and they depend on the middle man to trade their beans. Low incomes is pushing everyday to the new generations to leave back the farms and/or grow another crops. Some of them migrate to the city looking for basic jobs, they do what they can in the pursuit of a better future for their children. Without noticing promising future of staying and properly working their farms and precious Cacao trees. Today the average age in some small producer towns is 65 years. One of our goals is to create a growth development to keep young people in the farms working sustainably in this world renown product.

 

Looking for technical improvement I have trained with foreign experts in the field of cocoa in many areas:

  • Certifications: BCS Öko Garantie: Global fair certification company, good agricultural practices, organic agriculture with standards of the European Union, Japan and the USA.
  • Foreign trade
  • Auditor for Organic Farms
  • Quality practices in harvest and post-harvest to reach ultra premium standards.
  • Logistics and distribution of Cocoa to European, Asian and North American markets.

 

Looking for new markets to sell Ecuadorian Cacao led me to travel around Europe, visiting customers and chocolate makers. In these trips I was able to participate in:

  • Fair of ORIGIN CHOCOLATE in Amsterdam, Holland. In which artisanal chocolatiers from all over Europe participate.
  • BIOFACH Fair Nuremberg, Germany. The largest organic products fair in the world.
  • World Cocoa Conference, Guayaquil-Ecuador.
  • International Chocolate Awards 2017, Hanover, Germany (DACH) In which I participated as Judge.

Company profile

 

Our business starts with small cacao farmers. We work directly with farmers and associations. We are currently working on an organic certification of our company. However, it should be noted that certain certifications cannot be proven that produce a positive change in farmer’s economic stability or improve their quality of life. Each certification in the market does not verify quality or flavour, therefore, they do not contribute to the chocolatiers to reach levels of excellence in flavour profiles.

 

Our initiative in vision and mission is transparency, focused on the production of high quality cocoa, and improving the quality of life and the economy of farmers is how we believe that we maintain and encourage sustainability.

Our Story

 

CCA GmbH, is the fruit of a long road with many sacrifices, we are an independent company in the pursuit of the truly transparent and direct trade of Cacao Beans. Our core values relies on quality, conservation and preservation of special varieties, the finest strain of Ecuador and the world. It´s important to say that we not only look after the cacao beans, but also for its people: the hard workers farmers that are almost 200 associated under different names.

Our mission is to empower the farmers in Ecuador, we want to strengthen their confidence on business. That’s our recipe for transparency, there are many origins in Ecuador with a splendid flavour profile and the things are not going properly for the farmer and the consumer. Our mission is to rebuild the supply chain with transparency, honesty and hard work. Our way to create a great quality and to improve farmers’ incomes, through rigorously quality controls.

 

Our work is directly: with farmers and farmers associations. They can profit and be more solid when they are associated so we empower them to create associations where there is none. Part of our compromise standards is to really solidify the Good agricultural practices, Eco Friendly, to protect children’s health, communities, water supply, and the consumers. That’s how we figured out to maximize the supply chain in an honest way. Our main purpose is to maximize farmers tranquillity and well-being. That’s the only way to assure the proper development of sustainability of this almost extinct cacao for the best chocolate makers in the world.

Our statements of how farmers, environment and consumer will benefit supporting our cacao beans are completely traceable, as well as our beans, exhaustive control we implement from the tree to the whole process. Smallholder cacao beans normally have multiple fruits in their plantations, that’s how we can assure the heirloom quality, due to the remote and exotic nature of the valleys, free of toxicity and GMOs, our trees are pure genetically speaking, old breed of Cacao Criollo Arriba Nacional.

 

We seek to establish long-term relationships, with very passionate, selective and very dedicated chocolate maker, who are able to continue all the meticulous work that was previously done with the cocoa in the processes of harvest, fermentation, drying and selection, which can enhance and give life to the beautiful and complex organoleptic qualities that we precisely achieve with our work.

 

CCA GmbH is the voice, dreams and hope of a large human group, farmers, technicians, engineers, transporters, women and children from several cocoa origins in Ecuador, who started this project 11 years ago, selecting farms, doing tests, and rehabilitating farms. Now our independence allows us to reach Europe and carry out direct trade with consumers, establish personalized attention to their requirements and orders. We seek balance and transparency between the profits of the entire distribution chain between the farmer and the consumer, in order to make out of the quality a sustainable business for all its actors. Our biggest concerns is the extinction of the variety due to the poor profitability that the local market and large corporations give to this product and the low incentive for young labour in the cocoa farms, the average age of a farmer who works his farm is 60 years, that is why we feel the need to empower and take corrective measures.

Our arguments lead us to the sustainability and absolute preservation of the oldest varieties of Cacao and its people in Ecuador. We as Ecuadorians have the need to protect our environment, which is our grain of sand for the global problem, to protect our farmers and consumers. Our goal is to create Legacy.

 

We energetically reject the poor quality or degradation of the cacao trees, the genetics or their processes. Our Cacao Beans are only treated as the finest, because they are the best.

 

The native cacao, plantations of Criollo Arriba Nacional are very old, trees over 100 years old that we have to rehabilitate while maintaining genetics, located deep in wild valleys fed with the purest waters in the country.

 

We are working to establish long-term relationships and find partners who not only look at personal benefits, but also seek unique and unique Cacao differentiation.

 

Our transparency can be identified in our annual re-investment of profits in programs for the development of a first level avant-garde agriculture where the beneficiaries are the farmers, their communities, the valleys of native cocoa, the environment and the consumer.

Our sense of urgency is to take actions that ensure the sustainability of the fine cocoa sector, identifying farmers needs as well as their future generation, basically small producers and their families in some of the areas with the most economic poverty, we are located in extremely remote areas, very exotic valleys with difficult access, for daily life, the roads can be fully used only in summer time, in winter it’s nearly impossible to use them, it is all muddy and water.

 

A focus on Sustainability is an imperative, not an option for CCA GmbH.

 

In order to meet the growing future demand for cocoa and chocolate, we take all possible measures to ensure that cocoa is planted, maintained and rehabilitated in a sustainable manner that generates stable incomes for farmers and protects in harmonious and balanced way the environment, as well as the community, we are committed in areas of greatest economic poverty and with the greatest potential in Ecuador. CCA GmbH. is positioned to address sustainable initiatives.

At CCA GmbH. We work together with clients who request Cacao that comes from a specific origin, with stable flavour profiles, such as our origins Manabí, Los Ríos, Amazonia Sur. For us it is vital to find the solutions that best meet your needs. We implement certification schemes that pushes and strives to contribute the sustainability of cocoa, improve farmers’ livelihoods and promote safe work practices.

– The main focus is Empowering Cacao Farmers, preservation and conservation of an endangered strain of Fine Cacao.

– Increase the use of organic fertilizers by 100% to each of our associates.

– Make our carbon footprint an advantage for the environment.

– Traceability and post-harvest processes with rigorous and constant quality controls, successful for customers, farmers and the country.

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