Here in Saint Lucia, we started our Island Growers’ Program in 2008 with the intention to form a revival of the cacao industry in Saint Lucia. Since this began, we have influenced many farmers across the island to establish cacao farms on their estates.
We provide them with subsidised seedlings and assure them a market by guaranteeing to buy all the cacao they produce at a market premium, and to always pay within a week. We provide hands on training at our farm, along with farm visitation services, to demonstrate sustainable farming methods.
Our production in Saint Lucia forms only a small part of our total cacao use, so working with farmers and experts in both Ghana and Saint Lucia, we began our journey towards a better way of farming cacao 20 years ago. In 2004 we first launched our sustainability and ethical initiatives, which we now call gentle farming.