Virtual Cacao Marketing for Producers in the Dominican Republic

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Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 virus and travel restrictions around the world, in-person Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer assignments have been on hold since March 2020. Partners of the Americas’ F2F decided to use this opportunity to innovate by initiating remote assignments. This has resulted in new opportunities for our hosts, including new organizations we had not worked with before. And what is more exciting than a new host with their first assignment? A volunteer completing three assignments at once with a new host! 

Rebecca Roebber is a seasoned F2F volunteer and expert in cacao sourcing and marketing who worked several years in Ecuador for a cacao company. She recognized the quality of Dominican cacao and was happy to support Natural Hispaniola, a family enterprise that started organic cocoa production and processing about two years ago. Prior to COVID-19, they had hoped to increase in-person sales of their protein bar, EnergyKAO, however, the pandemic forced them to explore other marketing and sales avenues. 


Rebecca is currently assisting Natural Hispaniola with three assignments: 
  • Strategic Planning, 
  • Packaging & Labeling, and 
  • Marketing. 

Thanks to Rebecca’s widespread experience, she is able to complete all the goals of these assignments working through virtual platforms from the security and comfort of her home. She is helping Natural Hispaniola to build a marketing strategy and web page for sales and assisting with a new design for eco-friendly packaging as well as other tips and tricks for marketing their cacao products. These assignments will help Natural Hispaniola develop its work plan with a clearer strategy, will ensure they have new sustainable packaging for its products, and guarantee that their goods can be supplied to their national and international clients through a new digital platform. 


Natural Hispaniola is a small entrepreneurship founded by a Dominican family. Jenny and Arturo purchased a small cacao farm in the town of El Indio, in the Villa Riva municipality, in Duarte Province. Thanks to the help of many people, they embarked on the process of selecting plants of the highest quality, reproducing them and replacing old cacao trees to obtain the best of the fruits. In 2018, they began to enjoy the harvest of their plants, and that is when they decided to take the next step: to process their cacao. They have grown and now process and package not only the cacao from their small family farm but also the one from other small and medium producers, who like them work with love and commitment in the land of Hispaniola, the name given by the Spaniard conquerors to the island that Dominican Republic and Haiti share. Jenny and Arturo along with their local farmer friends work with enthusiasm day by day to deliver products that contribute to the well-being of their consumers.

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