Two-way inspiration

A fascinating day, yesterday, as we set off from Rabot to visit the farmers around St Lucia who are participating in our HCCAPEE scheme. HCCAPEE is the Hotel Chocolat Cacao-Growers Programme of Engaged Ethics. We could read a lengthy document to find out the ins and outs of it, but it made far more sense to go and talk to the farmers and find out for ourselves what it means for them.

First up was Mrs Auguste whose husband was the first farmer to join the scheme. Mrs Auguste told us she was originally interested in continuing in bananas, but decided that there was a better future in cocoa, when she learnt that HC was guaranteeing to buy all her crop – as much as she could produce.
Another lady farmer, Patricia, brought tears to my eyes actually, when she told us that she had inherited her cocoa farm, but thought she would not be able to bring it back to active production because she didn’t have the ability to set up fermenting and drying facilities. When she found out that HC buys the beans ‘wet’, ie, straight from the pod, she had joined up immediately and is now actively producing cocoa for the first time on her farm.

To our delight, the farmers were incredibly interested in learning more about what we are doing at the other end of the scale, with our retail guests. We were quick to show photos of our UK stores and tell stories of international expansion.

One farmer couldn’t believe his ears when we told him that cocoa tea is not an established drink overseas (apart from in Borough Market, of course), and that we are all ‘acquiring’ the taste still. We showed him the photos I posted the other day and everyone had a good laugh at his incredulity! In fact, this chap was joining up at the time of our visit, which means the total number of farmers is about 96. Angus is demanding a 100 Club party, of course.

As we progressed on bumpy windy roads around the island, we met more farmers who shared their experience with us. I won’t repeat all the benefits of the HCCAPEE scheme here because it’s not the place for it. But the thing that stood out most for all of us was the passion of the farmers for their cocoa crop. Many of them have retired from their regular careers and see cocoa farming as their retirement income. The value of having a guaranteed market for their output is therefore vitally important to them.

But it goes further than that, as one gentleman told us that, if he understands more about the wider business of Hotel Chocolat, then he will feel connected and motivated to keep on collaborating with us. He asked how many staff we have, and what our turnover is, and what our expansion plans are. How cool is that? We promised there and then to ensure that good quality material is sent over from the UK to the Rabot team, to make sure the inspiration is a 2-way process.