Venezuela’s Criollo Cacao Comeback: John Panagotacos interviews Saul Amarista, of Premier Organics
Recognizing the special heritage that Venezuela’s Criollo cacao has, Premier Organics is working hard to re-introduce this rare bean to the world through its Artisana chocolates.
José Manuel Navarro Larez, my grandfather, was the person who first introduced me to the world of cacao. The year was 1979. During this time, he was researching how to improve Criollo cacao farming and analyzing how to prevent and cure typical Criollo cocoa tree diseases. Of course, that really wasn’t unusual since my whole family has been farming Criollo cacao for centuries.
In the year 1987, I started working on my vision of developing Venezuelan Criollo cacao by turning cacao farmers into rural entrepreneurs. In 1990 we consolidated all our Venezuelan cacao farms in El Cacique del Cacao. Since then, we’ve mapped out a strategy to set an example to other producers, existing and/or potential, so they can see up close what is possible when suitable technology is applied in the field. El Cacique del Cacao is a great laboratory. We started to demonstrate that Criollo cacao trees are a real business, as they have been throughout the history of Venezuela. In order to find our future, we need to look at our roots.