Cacao Embassy’s ‘good cocoa’: supporting the growth of young chocolate makers in Guatemala

For the three young Matute brothers, the Cacao Embassy journey began in the family kitchen. In 2018, Pablo, the youngest, was organising tourist visits to cocoa farms. To gain the farmers’ trust, he bought cocoa beans from them, which he stored at his parents’ home. However, the beans were difficult to preserve because of their strong smell.
He therefore decided to turn the beans into chocolate. Pablo and his brothers learned by watching YouTube videos and practised in their parents’ kitchen. Thanks to this process of trial and error, they became experts in making chocolate. They now have their own top-of-the-range chocolate brand (Chocolate Sero) and offer chocolate processing and branding services for producers.  

A business model with a social and environmental impact

In Guatemala, 70% of cocoa farmers earn less than a dollar a day and many are forced to sell their land to make ends meet. The Matute brothers’ business model is different in that they process and package the chocolate directly in Guatemala, enabling them to pay a higher price to the cocoa farmers. They currently work with five cooperatives comprising 300 smallholder farmers who use environmentally friendly farming methods. In this way, the Matute brothers’ business model helps to improve the living conditions of smallholder farmers and to preserve biodiversity. They call it ‘el buen cacao’ (good cocoa).

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Financing that meets the needs of young entrepreneurs

Between 2018 and 2021, the brothers’ business was financed mainly by contributions from family members. When they were seeking capital to finance the purchase of new machinery to reduce production time, they discovered Catalyzer, a financing mechanism set up by the Alterna incubator, which ADA supports as part of its YES-FI (Young Entrepreneurs Sustainable Finance Initiative) programme. In 2021, they decided to take the plunge and applied for their first $50,000 loan from Catalyzer.
‘We were delighted with the process because it was very quick and we didn’t have to provide any collateral,’ explain the Matute brothers. ‘The amount was manageable and didn’t involve taking on too much risk’. The young entrepreneurs also benefited from post-financing support from Alterna.
Since then, their business has grown steadily, with a constantly increasing turnover and workforce.

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YES-FI programme

ADA’s YES-FI programme supports small and medium-sized businesses managed by young people who need to finance their next growth phase. Actors from various African and Central American countries are supported in financing tailored loans of between €5,000 and €50,000 (and even up to €100,000 in some cases) for entrepreneurs. In Guatemala, ADA is implementing the programme in collaboration with its partner Alterna, whose mission is to help Central American entrepreneurs increase their economic and social impact. In 2024, the Catalyzer fund became an independent entity called Devela S.A.