Where does Our Chocolate Come From?
Natures Gold comes from the Mayan network of organic organizations.
This grower association consists of 1,500 small scale, certified organic, indigenous Mayan growers.
It is a member of the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT) and certified organic by the institute of market ecology (IMO) from Switzerland and Quality Assurance International (QAI) from the USA.
The organization was founded by two environmental and social visionaries in the 1980's. Jose Caballero an agronomist and Jorge Aguilar a priest (at that time) worked together to champion the organic and Fair Trade movement amongst the indigenous Mayan coffee growers in the Sierra Madres of Chiapas, Mexico. Jose Caballero would carry his slide projector and car battery on his back hiking for hours into the remote villages through the rugged mountain jungle terrain. After Jorge Aguilar gave his sermon in the local churches they would run workshops for the villagers on sustainable organic farming practices.
Now Mexico, in particular Chiapas, is the largest producer of organic coffee in the world most of which comes from small scale indigenous growers.
The network of Mayan growers they work with today is one of the largest indigenous grower associations in the world. Jose Caballero lives on a small cacahuatal (cocoa farm) and his passion is rescuing the original famous heirloom criollo variety of cacao from Soconusco