Portrait of Hilda Garcia, Peruvian chocolate maker supported by the Uniterra program

Hilda Garcia diligently finishes placing her chocolate bars on the glass case of the Uniterra booth as the Salon International de l’Alimentation de Montréal (SIAL) opens its doors to the public. Elizza chocolate bars enveloped in brightly coloured packaging representing aspects of Peruvian culture and nature tempt the curious passersby, enticing them with promises of lemongrass, cinnamon, mandarin, and chili-lime. Hilda flashes a welcoming smile, and visitors cannot resist stopping for a chat.

Hilda, a 46-year-old Peruvian woman, explains her products to them. She tells them about the various flavours, but also about her single-origin chocolates made from cacao grown in her region, San Martin, mostly from beans from the village where she was born, Pucacaca. “Part of the cacao that I use comes from the family plot I started working on with my grandparents before I was even 10 years old,” explains Hilda, who founded Chocolates San Martin. She opens up about her humble beginnings, the afternoons she spent after school with her grandparents who owned cacao plants, like all small-scale producers in the region. “I loved helping them harvest the cacao. I wanted to learn about everything, but I never thought about working in the chocolate industry when I got older because I just didn’t realize that anything existed beyond cacao. It was our daily sustenance. We mixed it with corn, and that was it!”

The San Martin region, located in northern Peru and mostly covered by the Amazon rainforest, is far from being the land of cacao production that it is today. In the 70s and 80s, the coca leaf was king and the region marched to the beat of terrorism, score-settling between drug cartels and guerilla warfare.

Hilda was 17 years old when she met the man who would become her husband three years later and for whom she would abandon her studies and family cacao plot to follow to the neighbouring village of Tarapoto. The plot now belongs to her uncles. In a soft voice, Hilda modestly tells us about the difficult years that followed – the close births of her two children, the dependence on her husband, and the macho and violent environment in which she lived. “There was no room for me to branch out, grow or find fulfillment,” she explained softly with a clouded look in her eyes.

In 2010, when Hilda heard about a contest organized by Technoserve, the American NGO that promotes women’s economic empowerment in her region, she jumped at the chance. The contest, called Idea tu empresa, helps women who want to break into the cacao and coffee industries. Hilda’s childhood memories stirred, and she decided on chocolate. When her project proposal was rejected, she refused to give up and, despite the lack of support from her husband, she tried again the following year. This time she was accepted.

For months on end, she took evening classes, alternating between theoretical and hands-on training. She quickly sold her motorbike and a few of her belongings to purchase materials to start her business. “I started working with couverture chocolate,” Hilda recalls. “In the evenings, in my kitchen, I would make chocolate candies that I would sell at the market the next day, before heading to my classes in the evenings. I made about one hundred of them every night. My customers liked them and asked me for new flavours. I started feeling more self-confident.”

It was at that point that Hilda decided to buy cacao beans directly and have them processed by a company. When her sales increased in 2013, she purchased several machines to help boost her productivity and diversify her product offering. “We now produce 700 bars a month,” Hilda announces with pride. She now has four employees. “But it’s still artisanal. For example, I don’t have a machine to roast the cacao beans. I do that at home in a pan, 10 kilos at a time,”she tells us with a broad smile.

The small scale of her craft has not kept Hilda from having ambitious aspirations. It has, instead, given her a renewed sense of confidence, she told us near the end of the Uniterra trade mission. She hopes to one day sell her chocolate bars on the international market. “I made a few contacts with potential buyers at SIAL. Maybe one of them will offer me a contract?”

In the meantime, the chocolate maker has plans to open her first chocolate shop in Tarapoto, a project which could come to fruition sooner than anticipated thanks to her training at the Académie du Chocolat de Montréal with Belgian chef Philippe Vancayseele. “I learned so much about technique, especially about decorating and painting chocolates by hand. Before the trip, I found a space to rent and started buying moulds to make my chocolates, but I was missing theory! Now I am ready!”

To build her business to the national level, Hilda can count on support not only from her children, both of whom study commerce, but also from her husband, who is willing to leave his smoked meat business to embrace the chocolate industry! “He never believed in me! Now he is so proud of all I have accomplished! It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Alongside ten other women in the cacao industry, Hilda created an association that would make Tarapoto a reference point for Peruvian chocolate. She especially hopes that this will encourage women of all ages to take charge of their own destinies and emancipate themselves, despite a society that remains deeply macho. “I had to earn my independence, day after day,” Hilda says as she fights to hold back her emotions. After a few moments of silence, she proudly adds, “That is my greatest accomplishment.” 

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From April 9 to 22, 2016, WUSC and CECI hosted 8 partners from Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala working in the sectors of cocoa, coffee and quinoa. This mission to Canada was organised to help them establish new business relationships, identify potential Canadian customers, learn more about the Canadian market, and receive training from Canadian chocolatiers experts to help them improve the quality of their products. We also strived to exchange knowledge with Canadian experts on cooperatives, giving our Latin American group the opportunity to learn from these models.

Uniterra is a leading Canadian international volunteer cooperation program, jointly managed by WUSC and CECI and funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.

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Text: Carole Duffréchou | Photos: CECI