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…Organic chocolates and fudges launchedForeign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Burkette gets the first taste of North West Organics chocolates. Ms. Anette Arjoon seems delighted.North West Organics, a company made up of Amerindians from Guyana’s North West District, is adding something “sweet” to its mission to protect sea turtles at Shell Beach and also keep Guyana’s forests standing.A range of chocolates and fudges was launched on Friday under the name “Green Gold.” It will add to conservation efforts in the Barima-Waini region, which is attracting growing interest not only for its conservation efforts, but also for its role in organic agriculture.Green Gold adds to the line of products already being sold by North West Organics, including organic cocoa sticks, Crabwood oil, cassava cassareep and Crabwood soap.Sales from the chocolates and fudges, as is the case with the other products, will go towards the company, which is made up of Amerindian women from communities strewn along Shell Beach – a 100-mile stretch of beach which becomes the nesting ground for four species of endangered marine turtles from March to August annually.North West Organics is a project of the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society (GMTCS), which was formed exactly nine years ago today. Once it started converting turtle hunters to turtle wardens, the society knew it had to find alternative employment for these converts, to feed their families and also to meet the unemployment needs of other Amerindians, particularly women. And so North West Organics was formed.“Nothing says ‘I love you’ eternally like a gift which is divinely, decadently delicious yet is forged on the principles of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and enablement of women and indigenous communities,” the society said, taking advantage of the timeliness of the launch of its confectionery brand close to Valentine’s Day.Green Gold products are produced from the organically grown cocoa tress of the North West; and Annette Arjoon, the driving force behind the GMTCS, boasts that the chocolates produced are not diluted, as popular chocolate brands.The society is betting on the some 1000 different flavours of cocoa “expertly released through the careful and loving attention to its processing by the Blue Flame Women’s Group of the North West.”One might want to say, however, that their method of producing the chocolates and fudges is hardly “expert.” When you unwrap the chocolate from the beautiful gold-coloured box and discover that the chocolate inside has the form of an ice-cube, it’s no coincidence. The chocolates actually get their shape and form from conventional ice-trays.So maybe they don’t have the best in equipment yet, but make no mistake – the chocolates are just about the best you can get out of cocoa.Those who make products are the ordinary women from the villages of Hosororo and Wanina, but they are perfecting a locally adapted method to produce chocolate developed by Dr Suresh Narine, the Head of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST).In fact, the Green Gold line of products was born out of collaboration between the IAST and North West Organics, in response to a need for a value-added market for the high quality, locally grown cocoa beans.In 2000, when Britain’s Prince Charles visited Guyana, he was so impressed with cocoa growing that he vowed to buy all the seeds produced once they could meet international certification of being organic. The British Government began offsetting the US$10,000 annual cost for the certification,nfl jerseys cheap, and soon Guyana’s cocoa was being used to produce Prince Charles Duchee’s chocolates.But the funding from the British Government soon dried up, and the Amerindians of Region One were then without a market for the cocoa seeds. It was then that the GMTCS stepped in with North West Organics and started producing cocoa sticks, which are now sold locally and in Canada.The cocoa sticks from which the chocolates and fudges are made are produced by machines that are powered by biodiesel, produced in Wauna by Agri Solutions Technologies – also a project of the IAST.The GMTCS says, “the production of a green product powered by green energy” is North West Organics’ initiative to support the national agenda to combat climate change.The products made from the Crabwood tree, such as massage oil and soap, save the trees from being cut down, Arjoon pointed out.The Crabwood tree has the same properties as the prized Mahogany wood, which is one of the most expensive woods in Guyana.Instead of cutting the trees down and selling the logs, the people of the Waini now harvest the seeds during the two seasons annually, and sell the oil to North West Organics.Some 50 gallons of crabwood oil are bought every season, earning about US$2,500 for the Amerindians.Without North West Organics, they would have had to earn a livelihood cutting down the Crabwood trees and selling logs for about US$1 per square foot.Proceeds from the sales of North West Organics products are reinvested in the local communities in areas such as equipment, training for women, environmental education, and the promotion of agro tourism. |
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