Grower Story
Eustaquia Morena
Eustaquia Morena was born into a family of cocoa farmers and remembers helping on the plantation as a child. Now, at age 54, she and her husband cultivate cacoa on their own farm near the Dominican Republic’s regional capital of Yamasa, the country’s primary cocoa growing area. “I like working with cocoa,” she said, “That’s what I have done my whole life.”
Some of Eustaquia’s work is done at home, where she receives fresh cocoa beans from farmers in the area. Otherwise, she works on her family’s cocoa plantation. On those days, she and her husband rise early, prepare their tools, and pack food for their horses and the work crew. Then they walk an hour and a half from their small village of La Parcela to their three-hectare plantation. “It’s more than the one to two hectares most farmers have,” she said. “But we have the disadvantage that our plantation is far away and it takes a lot of effort to get there and back.”
During cultivation, the men use machetes to trim the trees, remove weeds, or plant seedlings in open spaces to improve efficiency and yields. “We are doing this constantly,” she said. “It is part of the job.” During the harvest, they cut the high-hanging mazorcas (pods) from the cocoa trees with a knife fixed to a long wooden stick. Then they open the mazorcas with a machete, remove the pulp with the beans, and place them into bags. At mid-day, Eustaquia cooks lunch for the plantation crew, then they return to their work. At the end of the day, the heavy bags are loaded onto the horses and they walk an hour and a half back to the village, where Eustaquia does chores and prepares supper. “The horses are very important for us. Without them we could not transport the beans over such a long distance,” she said. “We own one horse and rent another one if needed.”
Because some mazorcas ripen in the cocoa trees throughout the year, Eustaquia and her husband visit the plantatation at least every 15 days to harvest them, along with the other fruits that are interspersed with the cocoa trees – oranges, bitter oranges, lemons, bananas, plantains, breadfruit, avocado, yams and taro. However, the main cocoa harvest lasts from March to July. These months also make up the rainy season, making harvesting more difficult and increasing the risk of disease. The second harvest, in December and January, produces a smaller yield. Typically, their plantation averages 600 kilograms per hectare each year, although a poor season last year brought them only 400 kilograms per hectare.
In her free time, Eustaquia attends church three times a week, and relaxes at home with her husband. On the weekends, their two daughters often visit with their husbands and five grandchildren. “One lives in the capital and studied computer sciences at university,” she said. “The second daughter lives in the neighbour village and is becoming an accountant. Both daughters have small cocoa plantations, which they received from my husband and me.” The family also gathers to celebrate birthdays and major holidays such as Semana Santa, Christmas, and the New Year with traditional dinners of beans, rice, manioc, and plantains with either beef, pork, or chicken. After a lifetime of cocoa farming Eustaquia is convinced that organic farming improves farmers’ health and livelihood. “We receive a premium for the organic cocoa, which is relevant for our income and allows us to make investments,” she said. “The most important thing is, that we don’t poison the environment and can offer healthy products”