Supporting Women in the Cocoa Industry

I went to another Cacao and Chocolate Summit yesterday afternoon online. The topic this time was "Support for Women Leaders in Cacao." I've written a bit about women in the chocolate and cocoa industry in the past. When I feature creations from women or POC owned businesses, we always mention that fact, because I it is important to some of you and it is important to me, too. We all want to know where the chocolate we buy and use comes from, right?

The speakers at this 60-minute Zoom event included Jessica Granillo Solórzano, a third-generation cocoa producer, and Sonia Guachizaca, a fine cacao producer, with the host Jenny Samniego, the founder of Conexion, Ecuadorian company that is presenting this series.

The speakers were Spanish-speaking, but one of the coolest things about this series of events is that you can pick either English or Spanish for translations.

The discussion was primarily about women's role in cacao production. Both of the panelists are among the first women to lead industry and farming groups in their countries. Families are a big part of how these two women got into the industry, generally through existing family farms.

Solórzano had an inheritance from her mother that she invested into cacao farming. She disliked that women were not active participants in the meetings among cacao farmers so she decided to become active. She has also worked to included younger people in the decision making processes. The progress in a decade is slow, 21 women out of 1000 members, but that's 20 more than when she began.

Guachizaca learned by working with her father. She was fueled by the desire to protect the workers on cocoa farms as a working mother. This expanded into a drive to help the entire community through the cacao industry there. Her father got her involved in various cacao consuls that tried to help out farmers. Guachizaca's career has gone back and forth between her public and industry work and managing the family farm over the years.

I asked this question during the Q&A time: What are you doing to try and raise your children to be more inclusive of women as cacao farmers and within the organizations you are both working with outside your family farms? My question was never directly answered but it was sort of answered as the two panelists kept talking. --> They are role models merely by doing their work. Often, in their cultures, it is better for women and girls to simply do the work and prove themselves versus attempting to use words or logical arguments. 

Overall, I thought yesterday's panel was good. I've been reading a textbook, Why Don't Women Rule the World? by Strachan et al, and the actions and reasons behind that that both women shared, reflected a lot of the findings presented in that book. A focus on how helping the self requires helping others, resistance from men, but also initial motivation from family. Working to improve women's roles in the cacao industry is time consuming but both panelist feel it will make the world and their farms better in the future. They do all of this organizational work on top of the traditional women's work their families and societies expect them to do. The resistance to women is not just among the cacao farmers but also from the buyers of their products. The host, Samniego, did an excellent job asking questions of her own but not very well with asking what listeners were interested in, though to be fair, no one other than me seemed to ask anything.