A case study of a cacao farmer in Southern Belize

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For more than 10 years Justino Peck has played an important role in his local community, frequently taking up issues and leading others in the fight to secure their rights. When, 10 years ago, he and fellow farmers were in crisis after the collapse of the price of cacao, he emerged as a powerful and charismatic leader. His huge personal commitment has secured a better future for himself, his family and the community.

Justino Peck is the chairman of the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association, the organisation that represents the interests of smallholder farmers in the Toledo region of Southern Belize. Justino is also the alcalde (similar to a magistrate) for his village of San Jose. This means that he is appointed to arbitrate and resolve minor disputes between members of the village to help avoid them going to court. As a leading figure in the community he stays in touch with local issues by attending the Village Council meetings.

Setting

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Forty-year-old Justino Peck lives with his wife Christina and six of their seven children in a three-room house in San Jose village, thirty miles south of Punta Gorda, Belize. The rooms are cool and dark in contrast to the bright, hot day outside. The house is constructed of wood with cement floors and a thatch roof. The biggest room in the house is the kitchen where food is prepared over an open fire on the floor. Here pots and pans hang from the ceiling and colourful plastic cups line a shelf. There is a low table in the middle of the cement floor, behind which Christina sits making tortillas in preparation for lunch. The other two rooms are used for living and sleeping.

Outside there is an archway of flowers and other plants dotted around. This is the work of daughter Delphina who loves to garden. The toilet, a deep cesspit, is housed separately nearby. They have their own supply of water, which is drawn through a single pipe at the front of the house. Up until two years ago they used the communal village water pump for drinking water. There is one public telephone in the village. Electricity hasn’t reached San Jose so for light they use kerosene lamps.

Although their house was one of the few in the village to withstand Hurricane Iris, the Peck family have outgrown it. Justino is constructing a new one next door. Already the cement floor is laid, supporting posts are in place and the thatch roof is complete. Hammocks are slung between the posts, making an open reception area for the family to relax and to receive guests.

Introduction of cacao

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San Jose was one of the villages targeted by an income-generating project in the early 1980s. As part of this programme Justino started to grow cacao and joined the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association, the newly formed farmers’ group. Five years later in 1988 the farmers reaped the promised rewards with the first harvest. But their good fortune wasn’t to last long. After only three years the price of cacao plunged in 1991 and it was no longer worthwhile harvesting their crop.

In 1993, after a few years of very low prices and hardship, Justino (already chairman of the Village Council) became chairman of TCGA ‘to help rescue myself and the farmers from the dire situation we faced then’ .

Fairtrade

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UK chocolate company Green & Black’s were interested in developing an exciting new chocolate bar to be called Maya Gold, loosely based on a local recipe for a spicy cocoa drink. With Fairtrade verification in mind, Green & Black’s struck an excellent deal with the farmers and offered a five-year guarantee to buy all their cocoa. Launched in March 1994, Maya Gold chocolate was the first product in the UK to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark.

For Justino and Christina Fairtrade offered security and tangible benefits. It meant they could make much needed home improvements and it provided the opportunity of sending their children to school. After selling to this new market for several years Christina Peck explained: 'From the money we get from cacao we have made a concrete floor in our house replacing the dirt floor, and our children are now able to go on to secondary school in Punta Gorda. We planted more cacao because of our confidence in Fairtrade.’

Delphina, the second eldest, went to secondary school and is now in college studying Business Administration.

Justino steered the TCGA for four years, taking up many issues on behalf of the farmers and representing their interests to government and other institutions. With all of his other unpaid responsibilities the work was eventually to take its toll. He was constantly busy with affairs of one kind or another that left him little time to look after his own farm. He stood down, exhausted, after the second term in 1997. All the work and energy he had expended had taken its toll.

However, reflecting on his life, this is the period of which he is most proud. Through his leadership and determination he helped to get the farmers back on their feet, he organised campaigns to lobby the government on their claim for land rights and he helped to regain the farmer’s confidence in growing cacao. ‘It makes me feel good to be looking out for my people and helping them to better themselves.’

Hurricane Iris

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Hurricane Iris hit Southern Belize in 2001 leaving a trail of wrecked houses and devastated crops in its wake. ‘During the hurricane we sheltered in the middle of our house. We all huddled together with the strong winds blowing outside. We were very frightened. I told the children it would pass over soon and I was right, it did. But I was frightened too.’

The hurricane represented a huge set back for all the farmers. It struck a month before they were to harvest their cacao and the money they would have earned was already accounted for. Farmers in San Jose lost their entire crop.

‘When we were affected by Hurricane Iris we really suffered. I couldn’t give Delphina the money she needed to go to high school. We asked for help from the government and in the first week the children were given their lunch free. I wouldn’t have been able to give her the money and I had to find other work to make ends meet.’

Over the following months, with the farmers facing difficult times, Justino rallied and helped to promote the rehabilitation programme to clear farms and plant new trees.

In 2003 the TCGA members re-elected Justino as their chairman. Christina had discouraged him from standing and Justino himself had to think long and hard about whether he wanted to. But eventually he decided he couldn’t turn his back on the TCGA at such a critical time. He wanted to help take things forward to the next phase.

Though the situation of the farmers has been improved dramatically through the hard work of all the various members of the TCGA Board, Justino says that their organisation ‘is as relevant for us today as it was when we started’.

Daily activities

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Justino gets up after Christina, at about 5.30am. He uses this time to organise meetings and get messages to people in connection with his various responsibilities. Just over an hour later he has breakfast of tortillas, beans and egg before setting off to the farm about 15 minutes’ walk away.

Some days he works on his cacao, clearing, weeding and pruning back the trees. Other days he might work on his corn, check on his animals or repair the fence. He comes home for about an hour for lunch and goes back to the farm until 5pm when he finishes his work for the day.

After supper, at around six o’clock, he will rest in his hammock unless he is attending a meeting of the village council. Justino specifically puts time aside to relax because he is conscious that otherwise he may overstretch himself again. ‘Now I am OK because we have a manager who takes day-to-day responsibility of running the office.’

On Sundays Justino and the family go to church. Nine-year-old Oliver goes to bible school and frequently comes home and retells the stories he learned there. Occasionally their married daughter Desiree visits with her two children, or Justino goes for a walk with friends.

Fairtrade and cacao

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Justino is well aware of the economic importance of growing Fairtrade cacao: ‘Some farmers think corn is more important because when there is high demand the price is 30 Belize cents a pound but now it’s 15 cents and soon it will be 10 cents a pound. During harvest time everyone has corn to sell and the price soon tumbles. With Fairtrade there is a guaranteed price of 1.35 Belize Dollars (42 pence) and we can sell as much as we can grow.

‘The difference Fairtrade cacao makes for me is that come January, right through to July, I know I will have a market. I know that I will be able to sell my cacao. By having that assurance I can make plans. If I want to buy books for the children’s studies or we want to take a trip we can plan for that.’

Although this is good news, Justino is very aware that the TCGA still has a lot of work to do to ensure the farmers really do benefit from the better deal they get. Some farmers are still struggling to get by. The TCGA needs to bring its costs down by collectively increasing production, converting more land to cacao and encouraging new farmers to get involved.

‘I know I am a cacao farmer and I wouldn’t want to lose that, that’s why I have been encouraging the other farmers to grow cacao.’ While the production volumes of the TCGA are low, the administrative costs of running it are disproportionately high. ‘If we produce much more we could bring our costs down and we could all earn more.’

The Future

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So over the next few months Justino and other members of the TCGA Board will continue to go out into villages to talk to subsistence farmers and encourage them to grow cacao. And, leading by example as ever, Justino explains, ‘I am expanding my cacao. I have rice, cattle and cacao and I will grow more cacao.’

At home Justino’s preoccupation is to get his house finished, but he will have to wait for this year’s harvest before he can pay for any more work. The wood and leaves used to build the roof came from another village and thirty men were employed to construct it. ‘We are spending our money on building our house, bit by bit. At the end of every harvest there is never any money left over.’

Justino’s aspirations for his future revolve around his children. ‘Delphina has already gone to high school. I want the rest of my children to follow her. They say the key to success is education. I want to provide the education necessary for them to succeed in life.’

Christina is clear she doesn’t want any more children but Justino tends to share his brother’s view: ‘It’s best to have more children because you never know who’s going to take care of you.’

But, on reflection, Justino adds: ‘In the future the cacao will support us. Because I won’t have to carry out any more planting, the cacao will be there and the children can help us.’