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Cooperativa Norandino
Peru
Piura
5°10’46.7”S
80°39’13”W
In the heart of the Rio Bigote valley
Cooperativa Norandino's cocoa-farming communities are based in the valley of the Rio Bigote - a river with its source in the Bosque de Niebla on the slopes of the Alto Sierra.
This forest of mist captures the water droplets formed when warm, humid air from the Amazon Rainforest meets cold air from the Pacific Ocean over the Andes mountain range. Moisture from these clouds condenses on the leaves of the trees, feeding into the Bigote river throughout the dry season.
The Rio Bigote irrigates a verdant valley that winds between hills covered by the Bosque Seco. This fragile ecosystem forms a forest made up of many endemic plant and animal species, adapted to long arid periods interspersed with rainy seasons.
Gran Blanco, the most unique cocoa in the world
Piura cocoa’swhite beans are easy to recognize. They grow in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, on the banks of the Morona and Santiago rivers. It is a close relative of Ecuador's Arriba Nacional cocoa.
Pre-Inca ceramics indicate that the cocoa was introduced to the north coast of Peru several centuries ago by the indigenous Mochica tribes. The white cocoa flourishes in the verdant oases of the dry Sierra de Piura, irrigated by rivers flowing down from the Andes. This variety of cocoa suffered from the anti-coca programs of the 2000s, which spread highly productive international cocoa clones throughout the country.
In 2008, the Cooperativa Norandino launched a three-step program to save Piura Blanco cocoa: identification and selection of the purest Piura Blanco cocoa trees (100% white beans) on plantations and in the wild, evaluation of the productive and organoleptic potential of these trees over 4 years, then promotion of Piura Blanco cocoa cultivation and distribution of seedlings to replace international clones.
In 2013, Valrhona made a commitment to the Norandino by signing an initial 5-year partnership and supported the Piura Blanco rescue program by financing a conservatory garden at La Quemazón. The eight selected Piura Blanco cocoa trees are being planted in multiples, with the dual aim of safeguarding the variety and producing genetically pure seedlings for distribution to Piura growers.
Since 2013, Valrhona has had exclusive rights to Gran Blanco cocoa, Piura Blanco produced in the Bigote river valley by the communities of La Quemazón, Valle Singucate, and Los Ranchos.
In this period, Piura Blanco has won numerous national and international competitions, and the Gran Blanco grown at La Quemazón won a silver medal at the Cocoa of Excellence 2021 international competition in Paris.
A COMMITTED COOPERATIVE
Founded in 2005, Cooperativa Norandino brings together more than 7,000 cocoa, coffee and panela families from northern Peru. Its mission is to improve the living conditions of its member families by providing access to local and international markets. Norandino is driven by fundamental values of transparency, fairness, respect, accountability, democracy and quality of service. Today, all its producers are Fairtrade certified and organic.
EXCLUSIVITY ON CACAO GRAN BLANCO
All these producers' plots are mapped, providing cocoa beans that can be traced back to the plot where they were grown. In line with agroforestry techniques, cacao trees are grown alongside other fruit trees and forest varieties.
Our relationship with Norandino began in the early 2010s thanks to our shared interest in quality and sustainability. In 2013, we signed a partnership that would enable us to work together to protect the native Gran Blanco cocoa variety. Since then, we have had exclusive rights to the Gran Blanco cocoa harvested in La Quemazon, Valle Singucate and Los Ranchos. These three communities located at the edge of the Piura desert, in the Andean foothills, have joined forces to centralize all the work that goes into fermenting and drying their endemic cocoa.
We have also expanded our partnership with Norandino to encompass cocoa supplies from the verdant Selva de San Martin forest, produced by the communities of San Juan de Shitari, San José de Sisa and Huicongo. We renewed the partnership for 10 years in 2021.
