OUR CHOCOLATE
As cocoa pioneers, we combine cocoa know-how with Swabian inventiveness in Nicaragua. Together with our partners and our 350 employees, we rethink every step of cocoa production at our El Cacao farm. We want to show that it is also possible to grow cocoa under socially and ecologically decent conditions and at competitive prices at the same time.
350
Employees
1 million
Cocoa Trees
2,500
Hectares
220
Species
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We plant our cacao on about 1,300 hectares at El Cacao. After the young plants are grown, it takes about 3-5 years before the cacao tree bears fruit ready for harvesting. It is not so easy to care for and requires a lot of care from our colleagues. Knowing the right time to harvest the fruit is extremely important and requires a lot of experience and knowledge. The fruits are harvested individually by hand directly from the cocoa tree.
After harvesting, our cocoa fruits are further processed and opened, and sorted for this purpose. The post-harvest treatment, which consists of fermentation and drying, then begins. This is a challenging task because the right timing during fermentation, the correct ventilation, and the right temperature during drying are crucial for the cocoa's quality and thus for its taste and that of our chocolate.
With a total area of 2,500 hectares, El Cacao is considered one of the most extensive coherent cocoa farms. However, only just under half is used for cocoa cultivation. Another 1,200 hectares consist of forest and wetland areas, which will remain untouched in the future to protect biodiversity. A total yield can be expected from 2025 when El Cacao will cover around 20-25 percent of our cocoa mass demand.
To date, we have already planted over 1 million cacao trees on El Cacao. Since you can't just buy the right plants in sufficient numbers anywhere, we have built up our nurseries to grow our cacao plants. Incidentally, twelve different varieties of the fine Trinitario cocoa are grown on El Cacao.
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