The Piaroas also know how to grow good cocoa

This fruit harvested on the banks of the Orinoco, in the Venezuelan Amazon, is famous for its fine flavor, aroma and organic production.

In our Venezuelan Amazon, on the banks of the Orinoco River, the Pïaroa indigenous community also grows one of the best cocoa in the country, the fine aroma Criollo.

This type of cocoa, introduced in the area by the agricultural engineer Richard Sarmiento, to boost the agricultural production of this community, is currently exported by the Japanese trading company Chuao Trading.

"It's very exquisite, it's super organic," says Edith Rosales, financial director of Chuao Trading, exclusive exporter of the cocoa from Chuao with the Chuao Peasant Company society, and cocoa produced by Hacienda Sabaneta, in Choroní, Aragua state.

And it is that the production system of the Piaroa communities is based on the use of different ecological spaces, mainly forests, rivers and streams, and areas for agricultural use.

The cocoa of the Piaroas

The Piaroa community has been planting cocoa for trade since the late XNUMXs, and it is around that time that Sarmiento, as a member of Cepai at the headquarters in Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas, has brought his knowledge and genetic material to plant cocoa and other types of plants to the most remote areas, six days by canoe.

"Today (the piaroas) are harvesting a good cocoa that is very popular internationally," said Rosales, as a result of the work of Sarmiento, who has accompanied the indigenous community for 20 years, bringing material from Ocumare, Cata, and Creole cocoa to plant and teach the Piaroa community.

However, since this community is so close to Colombia, Rosales warns, it happens that many Colombian cocoa buyers acquire this fruit produced by the piaroas at very low prices, which they then sell as if it were theirs.

"They come in canoes, he buys them at a very low price, and they take it away."

This is why, says Rosales, that there is a need to publicize the qualities of this cocoa from Amazonas in Venezuela and the world.

"Chuao Trading is making the best materials known," said the executive director, adding that in the country, it is necessary to encourage the production of F1 cocoa, which is the one that has gone through a fermentation and roasting process, because it can be done for the quality of cocoa in Venezuela, and because it is the best paid internationally.

CEPAI

CEPAI Amazonas is dedicated to promoting and advising the self-managed development of indigenous rural communities in the State of Amazonas.

The proposals that CEPAI accompanies encompass much more than the technical aspect of agricultural production, since the field advisers reside in the communities and become involved in their social dynamics in order to actively participate in all the realities faced by each locality and propose solutions to problems of health, services, education, marketing, organization and others.

CEPAI bases its advice on absolute respect for the social dynamics of Amerindian cultures, environmental harmony and the economic feasibility of each activity.