ROUND TABLE

A Required Taste

Cocoa, sugar, and wine are three of Ecuador’s up-and-coming agriculture offerings, as farmers promote their goods and ramp up production.

SANTIAGO PERALTA

PAY FOR PLAY

We work very closely with farmers and the company was one of the first organizations working to certify farms as organic. We began to enter into dialogue with people out in the fields. Because our employees work harder to achieve this quality, we pay better.

MORE ACCESSIBLE

We are trying to make our chocolate more accessible by not including any allergens, and knowing what people want. For example, as many as 20% of people cannot consume or have difficulty with milk, so we avoid its use.

FULL FLAVOR

If you have a square of our salted chocolate with a sip of a very beautiful whiskey, you will discover a lot about the whiskey as well as the chocolate. It is a premium chocolate. It is not a low-price product, but people who understand flavor are hooked.

RICARDO RIVADENEIRA

INTERESTING CHANGES

In Ecuador, the development of the sugar industry has gone through interesting changes that are based on modernization. This means going from the traditional milling process to using a modern machine called a diffuser.

OUR NICHES

We have three market niches, and the first one is industry. We sell 35% of all kinds of our sugar to industrial companies such as Coca-Cola and other large soft drink bottling companies. In terms of products, we offer sugar, light sugar, and stevia, a natural sweetener.

INVEST IN TIME

We have a research center for sugar cane, and the objective is that every year one or two new varieties of sugar cane are released. However, in order to release one or two new varieties of sugar cane we need 12 years of research.

GUILLERMO WRIGHT

GREAT GRAPES

The company began by producing table grapes on the premise that if we could grow good table grapes, good wine grapes could also be grown. Our plan was successful, and after we produced great table grapes, the wine grapes also worked out very well.

ENIGMA

Initially, it was tough to promote Dos Hemisferios as a product of Ecuador, because it is a country that is not recognized as a wine producer. However, after we sent our white wine, Enigma Chardonnay, to a contest in Mendoza, Argentina, we won a gold medal during a blind tasting.

GET LARGER

We have 360 hectares of arable land, but we only cultivate nine—we have ample space to expand. When we exported to Switzerland, we shipped a very small amount. With expanded production, we would be able to export to many countries and sell a higher quantity.

VINCENT ZELLER

GROWING VOLUMES

With the increase in the volume of cocoa available, the amount that we produce annually has also naturally grown and continues to rise. We exported 7,000 tons five years ago, 9,000 tons three years ago, and 13,000 tons in 2011.

WHY WORK WITH US

We’ve been differentiating our product, particularly in terms of taste. We have a laboratory and we analyze the cocoa from all regions and towns according to our flavor profile. This is why the manufacturers like to work with us.

NEW FLAVORS

Cocoa has been fermented traditionally for 200 years, and it is a centuries-old process. We now have a modern fermentation process whereby we control the temperature and the humidity, creating a completely different technology that makes our beans taste different from those of our competitors.