Meet Ruth Moloney and Tino Cota. We’re two reformed commodity traders.  We used to buy cocoa beans from West Africa, Indonesia, Ecuador and a host of other countries for several large chocolate companies.  When we came to Belize, we recognized its unique cocoa heritage and flavor, and wanted to be part of the movement to get it to scale in a sustainable manner. 

At the farm we now have more than 20 cocoa varieties that we found in Belize in a genebank.  Our team carefully grafts them onto local rootstock, either in the shadehouse, or more oftentimes now, directly onto seedlings in the field. 

It’s the same for vanilla. We found wild vanilla on our farm and we are working with researchers to map its DNA and to preserve it for future generations. 

The farm is creating meaningful work in a remote area of Belize, our team of 20 is skilled in plant grafting, vanilla pollination, composting, chocolate making, laboratory analysis, sales, marketing and accounting. 

Ruth writes more about the farm and cocoa and vanilla at her substack: https://ruthmoloney.substack.com