Camino Cacao, Mexico
Cacao production in Mexico has fallen by roughly 40% over the past decade, and many international makers have moved on to other origins. Camino Cacao is one of the projects working to reverse that — pairing long-term offtake agreements with serious on-the-ground regenerative agroforestry training in Tabasco.
About Camino Cacao
Camino Cacao is an impact-driven cacao project incubated by RRG Solutions Mexico and Maxiterra. RRG is a joint venture between food-systems venture fund S2G and RRG Capital Management; Maxiterra is a Mexican social enterprise that has worked directly with over 5,500 small growers over the past decade — training over 1,200 of them and helping increase yields by 250% over a three-year period. Camino partners with smallholders in Chontalpa, Tabasco, providing technical training in syntropic agroforestry, biofertilizer production, and soil management, then purchases cacao en baba (fresh wet beans in their mucilage) and centrally ferments the entire harvest at Camino's own facility, Chontalpa Fermentación.
What sets Camino apart is the commitment to long-term, living-income-based offtake agreements between Camino and the growers — giving smallholders a multi-year planning horizon for their farms instead of season-to-season uncertainty.
Farm & Region Details
- Region: Chontalpa, Tabasco, Mexico
- Producers: 150 smallholder farmers across 9 rural communities
- Producing area: 203 hectares
- Variety: Calabacillo, Patastillo, and Ancient Criollo
- Processing: Centrally fermented at Chontalpa Fermentación (Camino's own facility)
- Sourcing: Direct Trade
- Incubator partners: RRG Solutions Mexico, Maxiterra