The story of the sacred cacao fruit begins in the Amazonian rainforest where the Theobroma cacao tree grows. Archaeological evidence of cacao dates back to around 3,900 years ago, and its given name translates to ‘Food of the Gods’. It was introduced to Europe relatively recently in around 1600, and more than four hundred years later cacao and its chocolate derivatives show no sign of declining in popularity.
At GO Superfoods we pride ourselves on sourcing our range of cacao products from a large number of carefully selected organic smallholder farmers because we believe in not only offering the best cacao to our customers but in protecting the farmers that grow it, and the living organic soil they grow it in. The relationships that we have built with our suppliers has helped us to overcome recent supply challenges.
So, whether buying our 100% Organic Cacao beans, nibs, powder or Cacao butter blocks, you can be sure that they have been ethically sourced; we support all our cacao farmers whether in South America (Peru, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic), or Africa (Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, Madagascar and Sao Tome) to achieve Fairtrade certification to help them benefit themselves and their communities.
As you’ll know, traceability is a key requirement of the organic standard. But at GO Superfoods we go further and have established an independent fully traceable and transparent supply chain for our organic cacao. Thanks to our unique sourcing system and our manufacturers processing capability, coupled with our strict supplier’s audits, we guarantee cacao products that can be traced back to the original lot, so we know exactly where they’ve come from.
Meanwhile, in each country our suppliers work with the national partnerships that further boost both farmer training and income. These include Conacado and Biocafcao in the Dominican Republic, Acopagro in Peru, ESCO KIVU in Congo, and in Sierra Leone our suppliers have launched a large-scale Farmer Field School programme to support organic cacao farmers to upgrade their plantations and boost productivity. If you’d like to learn more about any of these initiatives, do get in touch with us.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct strictly forbids our suppliers to use child labour. To help ensure this we encourage our suppliers to work with certification programmes such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance to guarantee that the farmers they work with have child labour prevention policies in place.
At GO Superfoods we don’t just protect and care for our farmers, we recognise the importance of looking after the planet too. We therefore actively support agroforestry programmes to halt the deforestation often associated with cacao farming while actively encouraging reforestation.
Our manufacturers began engaging in an extensive agroforestry programme in 2021 beginning with farmers in Sierra Leone but with ambitions to extend the programme elsewhere. By establishing a smart agroforestry system, farmers improve and diversify the yield of their plantations. The agroforestry systems introduce a variety of crops on the plantations like shade trees such as fruit and timber trees, which not only promote biodiversity but enable farmers to diversify their income and boost their food security. This helps to eliminate the incentive to clear new plots of land to grow more cacao, plus, a well-developed regenerative agroforestry system will boost carbon sequestration and help combat climate change; replanting trees and organic cacao cultivation can store enough carbon to offset the entire carbon footprint of all GO Superfoods’ organic cacao products.
Through these actions GO Superfoods demonstrably supports the EU’s commitment to combatting deforestation and forest degradation associated with cacao and its derivatives, but we are also aligned with various UN Global Compact Principles that foster the development and adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and transparent marketing and third-party labelling schemes, that make environmentally responsible options accessible to all.
Rest assured too that our 100% Organic Cacao beans, powder, nibs or butter blocks are pure bliss on the tongue! Harvested by hand as pods, the raw beans are selected for the finest quality and fermented to reduce their initial bitterness. After cleaning the dried beans in natural water, they are left as pure beans, crushed into powder or peeled and their core extracted to be broken into ‘nibs’. Cacao butter is made by pressing ground milled nibs to make a cacao paste. This process separates the butter from the powder. The butter is solidified and moulded into blocks.
Whichever way the beans are processed they contain more antioxidants than red wine and three more than green tea, while also being a rich source of minerals. GO Superfoods cacao products are free of all 14 allergens and are ready to be eaten or used as ingredients.
We hold our suppliers and subcontractors to high standards, requiring compliance with relevant environmental laws and encouraging them to actively support our environmental initiatives. Protecting forests and native vegetation is paramount to GO Superfoods’ mission of nourishing the world sustainably so you can be sure that any cacao products you buy from us are guaranteed to be organic, ethically sourced, sustainably produced – and delicious.
So GO and place an order!
