Brands with a purpose

Inspiring and transcending through cocoa!

Having brands with a purpose represents the opportunity to establish a connection
between our brands and the needs and expectations of the communities and
consumers, thus producing a positive impact on society through significant actions
that go beyond the business relationships.

-102 women benefited
-312 hours invested in training
– 4 entrepreneurship projects developed

Through a historic cocoa farming tradition that is learned and strengthened from generation
to generation in the municipality of Chigorodó, María Idaly Gallego Sanmartín learned
while producing cocoa that consumers, by means of their senses, establish a connection
with a story that emerges from the hands of women. María Idaly learned about the strength
of working together with her family, the discipline of agriculture from her father, and the
vocation of taking care of what is important with her two children and her husband.
She has no doubts: love emerges from the cocoa production process. Thanks to this fruit,
María Idaly consolidated the tradition of talking to the plants and thanking them for their
flavors, textures and sensations.
That is why she remembers the day the Chocolates Business and its Cordillera brand
invited her and other 102 women to attend the launch of “Atenea, Mujeres que
Trascienden” (Athena, women who transcend). This program aims to transform the
cocoa production chain in order to enable a more diverse, inclusion-driven, fair and thriving

agribusiness where women have a more decisive role, in addition to generating well-being
for the families, communities and society.
Once María Idaly joined the program, she received training related to entrepreneurship in
the fields of chocolate product processing, financial education for rural women and
women’s empowerment and leadership. As she tells it herself, this was just the beginning
of the transformation process she has undergone since the Chocolates Business became a
part of her life.

As days went by, María Idaly and twenty women more joined forces, put their talents into
action and created “Aroma Ancestral” (Ancient aroma), an entrepreneurship project that
produces cookies, brownies, truffles, hot cocoa powder and other cocoa-based snacks.
The challenges emerging from this experience were numerous, for example: learning about
the market and sales, and the most important one, believing it was possible to make their
dreams come true. Thanks to the Atenea Program and the Cordillera brand of the
Chocolates Business, María Idaly and her colleagues had the necessary support to develop
the brand’s identity and to travel to the municipality of Envigado (Colombia) to present
their products at the Rural Entrepreneurship Fair, becoming an example of transformation.
That is why she does not hesitate to claim that the Chocolates Business has never left them
alone, that they have supported them every day to help them to improve as both persons
and entrepreneurs, and to turn an ancient tradition into an opportunity to transcend. 

“We want to make the world a fairer and more sustainable place by giving the
possibility of transcending to all those involved in making our chocolates” is the
philosophy of Cordillera, a brand with a purpose that is part of the Chocolates
Business.