In over twenty years of sourcing organic cacao, we've made very few changes along the way. The first was back in 2019, when we moved the sourcing of our primary cacao products—Cacao Powder and Cacao Nibs—to Sierra Leone, where we became early investors in the first growing operation to bring Regenerative Organic Certified cacao to the market. We were—and still are—incredibly proud to be part of a new way to do agriculture, one that not only produced a premium quality cacao product, but also supported the growers and land that supplied it.
Since then, both we and the Sierra Leone project have grown. However, our need for cacao has outpaced their production, making it impossible to obtain all of the cacao we need from their crops. For that reason, beginning in early 2024, we moved the sourcing of our ROC Cacao Powder and Cacao Nibs to the Dominican Republic. Our partners there were also early adopters of regenerative agriculture and their premium cacao beans are both Regenerative Organic Certified and Fairtrade certified.
Why the Dominican Republic? Years ago, cacao from this country was considered some of the poorest quality in the marketplace, due to poor initial processing practices. But beginning in the late 1980s, they began investing heavily in improved processes and better quality control, eventually turning their cacao beans into some of the most sought-after cacao in the world marketplace. Currently, the Dominican Republic is the number one exporter of organic cacao worldwide and takes second place for exports of Fairtrade certified cacao. For more about our Dominican Republic growers and why we chose them, please visit Our Growers page here.
What about Sierra Leone? Their growing co-op continues to thrive, thanks to early investors like ourselves. While we were sad to move on from a project we put so much heart into, we're thrilled to see their continued success.
For sourcing information on the rest of our cacao products, please visit our Help Center article here.