MOCCA – Maximising Opportunities in Coffee and Cocoa in the Americas

MOCCA – Maximising Opportunities in Coffee and Cocoa in the Americas – is a programme aimed at facilitating a resilient and growing trade in coffee and cocoa from the Andean and Central American regions. Its goal is to see this trade sustained by profitable farmers who make ongoing investments to maintain the health of their trees and the performance of their farms. In February 2020, NGO Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and ECOM agreed to implement the MOCCA programme called ‘Development of a sustainable cocoa supply chain in the central jungle of Peru’, for a period of three years.

In Peru, MOCCA supports more than 18,000 small and medium-sized coffee and cocoa producers in the Amazonas, Cajamarca, San Martín and Central Jungle regions to increase their productivity and improve their marketing. Through the programme, ECOM works with LWR to offer training, technical assistance, increased productivity and sales in ECOM’s certified collection centres, distribution of planting material and post-harvest packages to guarantee cocoa farmers’ profitability from their crops. To date and through ECOM, MOCCA has supported 2,612 producers, established two nurseries that have provided 68,000 higher-quality plants each year, and seen 50 agrarian promoters trained to pass on their knowledge to producers.

ECOM Peru and SMS are currently looking to expand our activities and sustainable supply chain to new regions of Peru, such as the Central Forest corridor. In doing so, we hope to promote sustainable cocoa production in the region and integrate producers into the international market, offering them better prices, training and technical assistance, and promoting care for the environment.

“My wife and I have been working with cocoa for 15 years. MOCCA has provided us with tools and fertilisers, and ECOM’s field technicians have helped me improve my knowledge. They have also enabled me to access the Cacao Móvil application, which provides practical information. Cocoa has improved the quality of my life and my family’s, and my daughter is now studying at high school. To maintain this, I want to keep improving my performance and continue with marketing my crops.” - Clever Adriano Castillo, Cocoa Producer, Peru