AgroNosotros: Sustainable Agriculture Investment Specialists

Sustainable Agriculture Investment Specialists
Specialty Coffee and Chocolate Producers
Operating at Origin in Panama and Belize
Vertically integrated “seed to bean to finished product”
We own & operate our farms, nurseries, post-harvest facilities, and factories that are managed by our in-house Team of experts.
Traceability and Quality control through the entire value chain

Meet AgroNosotros

AgroNosotros is a group of companies that started in 2014, raising private investor capital to acquire and “rehab” old, under-performing coffee farms in Boquete, Panama. We expanded into cacao farming and chocolate production in Belize in 2016. In 2018 added our own Specialty Coffee and Chocolate store to bring both products to market in a retail location.

We were primarily an investment-based company in the formative years. We acquired and developed a portfolio of 17 coffee and cacao farms, built out the farming and processing infrastructure and operations teams while developing our brands and products. Now we are entering the next stage of our development, as we become a product-based company, introducing high-quality specialty coffee and chocolate from Panama and Belize to the world.

Introducing our Coffee, Chocolate, and Retail Brands:

Our Portfolio of Farms

Specialty Coffee Farms

Specialty Cacao Farms

600

Acres Total Farmland

In Boquete, Panama, there are 4 or 5 families who produce some of the best coffee in the world and have done so for generations. However, many coffee farmers in the region do not operate their farms like a business. They have no capital to invest, they do not rotate the trees that are past their peak, so they end up with old farms producing a small amount of average coffee.

In 2014 we set about acquiring these underperforming coffee farms, that have the same natural conditions as our successful coffee-producing neighbors, such as altitude, rich volcanic soil, perfect micro-climates, etc, and we began turning them around into well run, high yielding specialty coffee farms. It was not rocket science, but it required “Capital and Coffee Science”

In 2016, we expanded into the cacao/chocolate industry as we wanted to add some diversity to our product portfolio, and for our investors, so we branched out into Belize. Belize is literally the birthplace of cacao. However, after decades of mismanagement and lack of funding, the cacao industry there was dying out. Farmers had no training or capital to develop their farms and end consumers lost faith in Belizean farmers to deliver.

Similar to our approach in Panama, we began acquiring and developing cacao farms, as well as establishing a bean buying program with existing farmers, and with the application of “Capital and Cacao Science”, we are putting Belizean cacao back on the map.

In late 2021 we acquired our first cacao farm in Panama, a 62.5-hectare property located in Chiriqui, Grande.

More About Our Cacao Farms More About Our Coffee Farms

Centralized & Closed-Loop Processing

50 Tonne Cacao Processing Capacity

75 Tonne Coffee Processing Capacity

What separates specialty coffee and chocolate from the commercial, low-quality products, are the varietals planted and the post-harvest process. At AgroNosotros we use only the best varietals and invested heavily in our centralized post-harvest processing facilities for coffee and cacao to ensure complete control over the entire process resulting in the highest quality end product.

In Boquete, Panama, we built a state-of-the-art coffee processing mill (beneficio) with top-of-the-range equipment from Pinhalense. This allows us to process all the coffee harvested on all 11 coffee farms, in-house and on-site. This is critical in controlling quality and costs and proving “Traceability” to the end consumer.

The beneficio operates on a “closed-loop system,” which means that none of the bi-products of processing the coffee affect the environment around us. For example, the coffee cherry pulp is saved and processed by thousands of Californian Red earthworms in our vermicomposting system, or “worm hotel.” The dried parchment removed during the exportation process is kept and used to fire the furnace to dry next year’s crop. The mill uses 10% of the water of a traditional coffee mill, and even that 10% is recycled, resulting in a closed-loop, environmentally sustainable facility.

In Belize, we not only harvest cacao from our own five farms, but we also implemented a bean buying program to support local cacao growers. Our goal is to provide them with a reliable channel to market to expand their farms and make a decent living. When acquiring wet cacao beans from hundreds of farmers, a centralized fermentation and drying facility is critical in controlling the quality and ensuring a uniform, consistent flavor profile in the finished chocolate products.

The facility consists of 3-tier fermentation boxes where the anaerobic fermentation process takes place over 6 to 8 days before the beans are moved to the most extensive set of solar drying beds in the country. Here, the beans are raked and turned for 6 or 7 days until they meet a specific moisture content level before moving to storage.

View Processing Facilities

Coffee Laboratory & Gourmet Chocolate Factories

This is where the fun begins and we start to experience and taste the finished coffee and chocolate products.

In Boquete, we built our own coffee testing laboratory right above the beneficio, on Finca Cuatro Caminos. This is where you will find our team of experts cupping and grading the coffee, not only to determine the high score and quality of the coffee but also to look for any defects so that we can improve our farming practices where needed.

Our team constantly samples micro-lots of different varietals from across our network of farms, processed in different ways, served in various brewing methods, to fully understand the flavor profiles and unique characteristics of every micro-lot we produce.

When it comes to chocolate, the factory is where the magic happens, and our team can test different roast profiles, conch times, percentages of cacao, etc., as we work daily to fine-tune our processes, improve our recipes and perfect our products.

Key to the consistent quality of chocolate is the equipment used. In our factories in Panama and Belize, we invested heavily in state-of-the-art processing equipment from Selmi in Italy. In each location, we can roast, crack and winnow, grind, conch, and temper to turn our raw cacao beans into silky smooth chocolate.

We have plans to add a larger factory location in 2022 to manufacture, store, and ship container loads of chocolate from Panama and Belize to the world.

View Products

Social, Environmental and Economic Sustainability

Our mission has always been to own and operate Specialty Farms in Panama and Belize that are Economically, Socially, and Environmentally Sustainable. Sustainability is the cornerstone of our business model. It is not just a buzzword thrown around or a marketing tool. We believe that with these three pillars of Sustainability, we can produce amazing Specialty Coffee and Chocolate for generations to come while having a positive impact on the communities around us.

We firmly believe that a rising tide floats all boats, and we work daily to help elevate our community through our scholar programs and working with local charities.

View Our Sustainable Impact Projects

Sustainable Agriculture Investment Specialists

Specialty Coffee and Chocolate Producers

Vertically integrated “seed to bean to finished product”