As a tourist guide, leading regular trips to Mexico and Panama, Pablo Matute regularly had people telling him that his own country, Guatemala, had some of the best cacao in the world.
“I always thought we had bad chocolate,” he admits. “As I like to challenge myself, I decided to start travelling to cacao-producing communities in different parts of Guatemala. I was startled by what I discovered.”
Pablo says that he was initially overwhelmed by the difference between areas in Guatemala which produced corn, and communities growing cacao.
“In communities producing corn the land had all been burnt after cultivation,” he says. “Where people were cultivating cacao, the area was so green. I later learned, from talking to farmers, that cacao grows under the shade of bigger trees, in nitrogen-rich soil and the areas usually have a high diversity of plants and animals. This is why they look so beautiful.”
Pablo and team members walking through the cacao tree nursery
Pablo bought 200 kilos of cacao from one of the farms he visited and took it back to his home in Guatemala City.
“My brother, Luis, and I tried to roast some cacao,” he says. “It was a disaster at first,” he laughs. “We ruined a lot but finally we managed to make a really good chocolate.”
Pablo and Luis decided to reach out to other cacao farmers. One of the first communities Pablo visited was Adioesmac, a cooperative of Q’eqchí farmers in the community of Tzalamtum, Cahabón, Alta Verapaz in central Guatemala.
“Right from the start, we wanted to create a more personal relationship with Guatemalan cacao farmers,” says Pablo. “We were inspired by Adioesmac because they were processing and fermenting their cacao to receive a better price for their beans. We saw how the women of the community were already processing the cacao into chocolate, selling it locally, resulting in improvements in income and independence.”
Pablo and his brother decided that what they wanted to do was to sell luxury chocolate, using the different varieties of cacao beans they were beginning to source from all over Guatemala. They also wanted to make sure that sustainability and ethical practices were core parts of the company’s DNA.
“We bought our cacao from small communities and private farms,” says Pablo. “We wanted to use only the finest cacao beans and traditional methods of chocolate-making and for all our products to be made with organic and fair-trade ingredients.
What started as a side business, with small injections of finance from Pablo’s family began to grow slowly. Until 2021, the company was producing around 30 kilos of chocolate every three days.
“Covid made us diversify,” says Pablo. “We started to create cacao paste and butter. Suddenly, we found we had a lot of demand for our goods but we didn’t have the right machines. It was a very uncertain time and we were losing opportunities.”
Luis did some research and came across the accelerator programme of Argidius’s partner, Alterna.
“To be honest, I was a bit desperate,” says Pablo. “I contacted them and said I was looking for business support and a loan of $50,000. They got back to me very quickly and approved the request and put me on their cultivation programme.”
This meant developing new commercial strategies and learning how to strengthen the company’s network. The loan came through from Alterna and Pablo was able to order the machine he needed from Italy. But his challenges were still not over. When the machine arrived in Guatemala, customs wouldn’t allow it through.
“No one had seen one of those machines before,” Pablo says. “My guess was that customs presumed it was full of cocaine. It took a long time for it to be released.”
By this time, Pablo and Luis were working as hard as they could to make sure the small factory space they were renting in Guatemala City was ready for them to move into.
“It was abandoned when we came across it so we got it cheaply. Just as we got everything installed, thieves stole the electricity meter on the street outside. We had a big order in and needed to process it. I was freaking out.”
After a lot of calling around, the electricity was re-connected and the company was operational.
Chocolates Sero team weighing the bags of cacao beans
In 2022, Chocolates Sero took part in the Alterna cultivation programme Bosques & Co. The programme gives support to companies which can make a strong impact on forest landscapes and local communities. Their involvement has allowed them to make improvements in their financial and impact management strategies, paving the way for exploring new commercial opportunities on an international scale.
“The company is expanding and my brother and I can now draw a full-time salary from the enterprise,” says Pablo. “We also employ 25 members of staff in our factory.”
Some of Chocolates Sero’s signature products include dark chocolate bars with unique flavour fusions like cardamon and chili, as well as milk chocolate truffles filled with creamy ganache. As well as selling their products in Guatemala, they are also receiving growing demand for their chocolate from the US and Europe.
“The business loan from Alterna and growth in sales are great. But the support has also come in other ways, including introductions from Alterna to other investors,” says Pablo.
“Pablo has demonstrated a strong commitment to growing Chocolates Sero and creating meaningful impact through his business model. The support from Alterna has enabled them to significantly enhance their productivity,” says María Isabel Oliva from Alterna “Chocolates Sero operates under a fair-trade model, collaborating closely with small local farmers and implementing agroforestry practices to tackle CO2 emissions.”
As a result of the support Chocolates Sero has received from Alterna, their sales have increased tenfold. The company is now producing 750 kilos of chocolate a week, compared to 70 kilos in 2021.
“It’s absolutely true what I heard at the beginning of my journey: Guatemala as a country produces really good cacao,” says Pablo. “It made sense that we reflected this in the name of the company – Chocolates Sero. As all my family are science nerds, they appreciated the abbreviation of the word sero from serotonin. Good chocolate definitely makes you feel happy!”
“Right from the start, we wanted to create a more personal relationship with Guatemalan cacao farmers. We were inspired by Adioesmac because they were processing and fermenting their cacao to receive a better price for their beans. We saw how the women of the community were already processing the cacao into chocolate and selling it locally, resulting in improvements in income and independence.“ Pablo Matute, Chocolates Sero
This story was originally published by Argidius Foundation and was edited for alignment with the Missing Middle campaign.