Steaming cups of coffee and small dishes filled with various flavours of chocolate await the first visitors to Uniterra’s booth at the International Food Exhibition (SIAL) in Montreal. On the wall behind the stand hangs a poster of the high plateaus of the Andes, the origin of the packages of quinoa displayed on the mounted shelves. A dozen business men and women surround the booth, arranging displays and spreading product brochures for Peruvian cacao and chocolate, Guatemalan coffee and Bolivian quinoa.
They are the chocolate makers and leaders of cooperatives in Latin America who answered Uniterra’s call in their respective countries to, with a financial contribution, join a trade mission jointly organized by WUSC and CECI. The two-week mission was jam-packed with visits in the Montreal and Ottawa to funding organizations areas that could facilitate access the Canadian market. They also visited cooperatives and the Swiss-owned Barry Callebaut chocolate factory, the group’s largest production unit in the Americas.
The SIAL exhibition, which welcomed more than 17,000 international visitors this year, was the delegation’s main event during their two-week visit. It was a chance for them to promote their products and, within three days, most of them had made promising contacts with potential clients. “This was the first mission of its kind,” explained Sylvain Matte, Senior Advisor of Strategic Partnerships for the Uniterra program. “We didn’t settle for promoting our partners’ products, as we have done in previous missions. This time, in addition to the usual goals of building capacities and knowledge, we had a clearly stated commercial goal. We offered them a space on a huge international stage on which to promote their own products and break into new markets.”
In addition to its volunteer cooperation component, Uniterra also uses partnership brokering to help establish trade relations between producers in countries in the South and Canadian businesses seeking new suppliers. According to Nancy Lafrance, Regional Coordinator for Latin America at CECI, participants on this trade mission had to meet two requirements: “They had to have real export potential, and they had to have a model that was inclusive of women and youth, with a real vision of social responsibility.”
In addition to looking for new opportunities and business contacts, these women chocolate makers and cooperative leaders are looking to better understand the Canadian market. Whether selling quinoa, coffee or cacao, they all share the same angle for positionning themselves on the niche market as producers of organic products renowned for their high quality and fine flavour, and that meet fair-trade standards.
To this end, the delegation visited Canadian cooperatives Agrodor, La Siembra and Bridgehead, where they received valuable information, such as “… how business people think and operate, how distribute, what the regulations are for imported products, etc. All this information will be extremely helpful for adapting our product offering and breaking into the market,” explained José Rojas, representative of the Norandino cooperative, which has 7,000 small-scale coffee, cacao and sugar cane producers.
“We have realized, for example, that the Canadian market is no longer interested in pre-processed products that are ready for consumption and that the regulations are quite strict and specific,” explains Violeta Lozano, accountant and Deputy Director of the Oro Verde cooperative. “With that information, we can see how to further improve our products and services. But are especially seeing how this opens up new possibilities, such as whether we should associate with other Peruvian cooperatives to offer a final product.”
Gonzalo Ríos, manager of the Acopargo cooperative, which he co-founded 20 years ago, was very inspired by the Canadian cooperative model. “These cooperatives have taken a path that has helped them grow and stand up to the competition through mergers, consortiums and joint ventures – this is a model that we need to look at in Peru.” The 48-year-old economist was pleasantly surprised when, during a visit to la Siembra, he realized that the cacao he sells to Switzerland and Italy had been imported to Canada and used in the Camino brand chocolate.onzalo Ríos, qui a co-fondé la coopérative Acopagro il y a bientôt 20 ans et en est depuis le gérant, s’est montré très inspiré par le modèle coopératif canadien. «La voie empruntée par ces coopératives pour croitre et mieux affronter la compétition, en fusionnant, en faisant des consortiums, des joint-ventures est certainement un modèle à étudier chez nous» affirme l’économiste de 48 ans qui a eu l’heureuse surprise de découvrir lors de sa visite à la Siembra que son cacao vendu en Suisse et en Italie était par la suite importé au Canada et utilisé pour la marque Camino.
Throughout the trade mission, all of the delegates constantly sought to learn more about market trends and consumer taste.
As the mission came to an end, Hilda García, one of the three Peruvian chocolate makers invited on the trip, saw one thing very clearly: Canadians basically like dark chocolate without too many exotic flavours. “Let’s just say that my lemongrass and chili-lime bars were less popular than they are in Peru!” laughed the 46-year-old entrepreneur and founder of San Martin chocolates. “Now I realize that I will need to develop a specific product offering for exportation.”
For two days, the chocolate makers received practical training from Director of the Montreal Chocolate Academy, Chef Philippe Vancayseele. They attended technical classes on chocolate crystallization, molding and decoration, taking away valuable information that they intend to share with other entrepreneurs in their region. Because beyond tapping into the world market, these women want to develop a high-quality chocolate offering at home to tempt Peruvians away from the poor-quality chocolates they tend to prefer and introduce them to their own national cacao. While Peru produces less than 2% of the world’s cacao (90% of which is exported), it is the second largest producer of organic cacao in the world. It is an incredibly high-quality raw material that the chocolate makers and cooperative representatives who came to visit Canada would like to see appreciated at home.
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From April 9 to 22, 2016, WUSC and CECI hosted 8 partners from Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala working in the sectors of cocoa, coffee and quinoa. This mission to Canada was organised to help them establish new business relationships, identify potential Canadian customers, learn more about the Canadian market, and receive training from Canadian chocolatiers experts to help them improve the quality of their products. We also strived to exchange knowledge with Canadian experts on cooperatives, giving our Latin American group the opportunity to learn from these models.
Uniterra is a leading Canadian international volunteer cooperation program, jointly managed by WUSC and CECI and funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.
Text: Carole Duffréchou | Photos: CECI / WUSC
