Francisco Sakaguchi

Francisco Sakaguchi inherited this farm and its cocoa trees from his father, Noburo. Sakaguchi's cacao, grown in Tomé-Açú's agroforestry system, could have been produced in the monoculture system devised in the region at the end of the 1920s, had this project not failed. What luck!

Noburo arrived in Tomé-Açú in 1957, initially to produce rubber trees, rubber and pepper, among other crops, with the conviction that he had to preserve the forest and biodiversity.

It's no coincidence that Fazenda Sakaguchi (50 ha) is now home to a wide range of species: coffee, cocoa, cupuaçu, andiroba, açaí, guarana, pitaya, soursop, lemon, mandarin, acerola, black pepper, Chinese cinnamon, cardamom, chestnut, fishing palm, and even mangosteen, rambutan, puxuri, quinine, camu-camu, sapucaia...

Today, Francisco is the heir to this natural agriculture. It allows him to avoid using chemicals and to take advantage of nature's influence on his cacao.