🌎 PART II THE PATHWAY TO POWERFUL POWERSHIP BUILDING
🌱…🌳 SOURCING IS A JOURNEY often bumpy & complex and it rarely goes according to plan. But the journey is as important as the destination. It starts always with a small seed: an idea, encounter with an inspiring person, or a bigger plan to transform a cacao-region.
💡🌱🕵️ GETTING INSPIRED & INTRIGUED!
Once we got intrigued by a farmer group, flavour & origin, we channel our inner Sherlock Holmes & investigate the possibility to work together. Travelling to the source is a serious investment, a lot of work and not always the romantic holiday destination it might look. But, it inseparably connects us to with our partners to forge strong ties.
👩🏽🌾👨🏾🌾👩🏼👩🏻👦🏾 ALWAYS IN GOOD COMPANY
Given the complexity of our work, it is never a one-(wo)man show. We team-up with our network of amazing buddies: farmers, fermentation experts, NGO‘s. Together we co-develop a chain that brings value back to farmers to make them thrive. We assess the situation, identify challenges and what it takes to overcome these, aiming for long term success & viability.
🗺️ 📍A ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE.
For each region we draw a plan & strategy how to make a difference for flavour, preserve forests and create positive change for farmers. It are our partners involved that are essential for success. If we are not on the same page, it won’t work.
👉🏻 JUST DO IT!
As soon as we have the right partners on board, we get started. Every sourcing area is different, has its own challenges & work intensity. There is not a “one size fits all”. We adopt our plan based on farmer’s knowledge, resources (finance, equipment) organization. Some farmers are very knowledgeable, others have never produced specialty cacao. Developments from scratch take 2-4y to get it up & running.
🛠️ CONTINUOUSLY CRAFT THE PLAN
We often have to adjust our plans. That’s why we say sourcing journeys. Depending on the maturity of farmer groups our work becomes more intensive, more risky, and our plan needs crafting. These are often the origins where our impact & change for farmers is huge.
☀️🌥️🌈At Silva we always see the silver lining gleaming brightly!