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Business SectionEl Comercio
Rediscovery made in a Marañón River Valley
Legendary variety of cacao that was believed to be extinct for 90 years has
been found
photo by katherine page
The plant had been seen
for the last time in Ecuador in 1920.
Wednesday, March 16 09:53 am
New York -- ANDREA
LÓPEZ CRUZADO
Special For El ComercioPeru
Sceintist believe this
variety
of legendary cacao was
extinct
Don Fortunato, a humble
Peruvian farmer, is becoming a celebrity within
brian horsley and paul edward in the Nursery of Fortuanto No. 4.j with the new cacao trees.
the elite circles of the global chocolate industry. It was on his farm, in a valley of the Marañón river, where a
cacao was recently discovered whose genetic composition is identical to that of a highy prized variety that was
believed extinct for more than 90 years.
The new cacao, which is generating enthusiasm and praise from chocolate artisans from Switzerland and Germany to the United States and Canada, has been baptized Fortunato No. 4 in his honor. Number 4 refers to
the fourth of several samples analyzed by the United States Department of Agriculture that confirmed what is
considered the rediscovery of pure Nacional, a fine cacao lost around 1920 in Ecuador.
“When they called to give me the results and they asked ‘are you sitting down?’, I knew we had something rare”,
said Dan Pearson, who found the trees along with his partner Brian Horsley while both were looking for bananas. “We’re so proud to have found this chocolate by chance”.
Pearson and Horsley, two Americans from California, have worked since 2002 as contractors at the Yanacocha
gold mine in Cajamarca, providing everything from machinery parts to fruits and vegetables. In fact the pair was
searching for fruit supplies at the beginning of 2008, when they arrived at Fortunato’s farm, whose last name they
prefer not to mention, along with the exact location of the cacao, instead simply using “northern Peru”.
“It’s true, we want to protect our investment, but also this is a Peruvian treasure, and our main fear is that if too
many people arrive here they could destroy it,” said Pearson. An officier from the Peruvian Agriculture Ministry’s
Office of Agro-export Competitiveness, who asked not to be identified, agrees about not yet revealing the exact
location of the finding. “It’s important to be prudent for now” they said, adding that the ministry was notified of
the discovery in November of last year.
MARAÑÓN WOLRDWIDE
Pearson and Horsley, who had never worked with cacao before their big discovery, founded Marañón Chocolate,
the company which is introducing Fortunato No.4 to the world.
While Pearson handles US operations - although he travels to Peru two or three times a year - Horsley is in
charge of the field work. “Gringo Brian”, as Horsley is known in the jungle, has lived there for several years, after
marrying a systems engineer in Cajamarca in 2008. Together they have a nearly 3 year old daughter in Cajamarca.
With a team of about 15 workers, all from the cacao project area, Horsley supervises the harvest, whose season
runs from January to May. After harvesting the cacao fruits from trees on small
farms, they personally select the beans
themselves. Then the beans are placed in
45 lb. capacity buckets and sealed. The
cacao producers receive their payment
in cash, at the same time the beans are
harvested, at a price “10% higher than
the price local middlemen pay”, asserted
Horsley. The full buckets are transported
to one of the processing plants that
Marañón Chocolate have built -- up to 8
miles into the jungle -- where the beans
begin the fermentation and drying process the same day.
Fortunato with Brian Horsley, wife Cecila and their daughter Amara. photo by bruce rogers
Last year, Marañón Chocolate worked with 186 farmers, processing a total of 12 and a half metric tons of cacao. This year they hope to do business with up to 220 cacao growers, and to raise production to 15 tons, said
Pearson. The company prefers not to reveal how much money it has bet on the project, but says that now, after
launching Fortunato No.4 in January in New York, it would begin to recover its investment. Horsley, who speaks
Spanish, adds that they are committed to sharing 10% of net profits with the farmers, and 5% of net profits to the
creation of a social development fund.
MADE IN SWITZERLAND
At the end of May, the cacao beans travel to Switzerland, where a manufacturer, whose identity can not be
revealed for contractual reasons, uses a machine from 1879 to process the cacao. Due to the unique nature of
Fortunato No.4, that particular machine, which doesn’t use artificial heat, is the only one able “to protect and to
conserve the beans’ wide range of delicate and rare flavors” says Pearson. After three or four weeks, the chocolate bars are ready for distribution.
Marañón Chocolate sells Fortunato No.4 to some of the most important companies in the fine chocolate sector.
The company already has exclusive contracts with chocolatiers in Switzerland, Germany, Canada and several in
the US. One of them, Moonstruck Chocolate of Oregon, uses the line “Floral, fruity and nutty flavor notes live
inside this chocolate” to promote Fortunato No.4. Moonstruck sells 56 gram bars of Fortunato No.4 for $12 ,
compared to the $7.50 it receives for bars of the same size from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. It also
offers boxes of Fortunato No. 4 cacao beans tumbled in its own chocolate. A 99.5 gram box of tumbled beans is
$12 , $2 more than other Moonstruck products of the same type.
“The response has been tremendous, people keep asking for more”, said Allyson Savage, director of marketing for
Moonstruck, without revealing exact numbers. “We are incredibly proud of the products we’re making” with this
cacao.
Marañón Chocolate also has plans to launch Fortunato No.4 in the Peruvian market. Although they are negotiating with a chocolate store in Miraflores to sell it, as yet there is no signed agreement.
A REAL JURASSIC PARK
The Nacional variety of cacao was exported worldwide from Ecuador by a Swiss chocolate manufacturer from
the beginning of the 19th century. Its “unique floral flavors” conquered the fine chocolate market quickly. But
diseases, such as Witches Broom, ended that.
Now however, doctors Lyndel Meinhardt (lead investigator), and Dapeng Zheng (genetics researcher) from the
USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, have analyzed the genetic structure of Fortunato’s cacao, and determined
that the trees are native to Peru. Today, Ecuador cultivates hybrid Nacional trees with light brown or pink colored seeds. The Peruvian trees bear fruit with 40% to 100% white beans, like the original pure Nacional.
Important Facts
Pearson and Horsley soon realized
that the white beans reacted differently
to Processing than the dark beans
-to create the ideal beans the owners
of Marañon Chocolate had to preform
81 tests until finding the ideal process
-An American expert and 21 months
of tests create the exact process for the
40% white and 60% dark beans